Ignorance
by EibonVirgo
Summary: Silvan Levine has a lot to deal with. Besides the fact that she wakes up soaking wet, reads minds, and sees the past, the whole world seems to be against her. When her friends are taken, she's ready to keep running from it all—until some good advice, a group of psychics, and a best friend or three show her that ignorance is definitely not bliss. Yusei x OC.
1. Trouble

**Hey everyone! As you know, I recently trashed Misery Business because I was pretty unsatisfied with it. This is sort of a rewrite, and it will follow a somewhat different plot line with different elements to it. I also changed a lot of the names and things to the Japanese translations (as I've grown considerably and realized that sub is so very obviously better than dub). With that, please enjoy!**

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-ACT I: A BILLION REASONS TO GO ON LIVING-

I wake up doused in water.

It's funny, because sometimes the pipes burst and the tunnel floods, but other times I go to sleep in a completely dry place that has no plumbing and I wake up soaking wet.

"What the actual fuck, " I say under my breath, rolling off of the mattress. I'm spitting out water, and it tastes clear and clean like I poured a bottle of distilled water over myself while I was sleeping. Weirdly, the mattress is dry.

I come out of the bunks shaking my hair like a dog, spreading small droplets of water everywhere. Rally and Blitz, who're sitting on the concrete floor sorting their cards, spread their hands out over their faces.

_Seven, eight, nine, t—wha..? _"Hey!" Blitz complains, pulling his glasses off to prevent them from getting wet. "What the hell?"

"I keep waking up like someone dunked me in a lake," I grumble, squeezing the water out of my too damp blonde hair.

_This is so weird. _"That's like the fourth time in two weeks. Do you keep going for a midnight swim, or something?" Rally asks.

"Like I'd go swimming in the sound," I retort. "Even if I had, this is clean water."

_How the hell does it keep happening, then? _"Jeez, Sil, you must be going insane." _I don't understand her sometimes. _

"Oh, absolutely," I grumble. "And I'm taking you both with me... Do we have any towels?"

_Yep. _"Table in the shack."

"Thanks."

I cross into the battered old shack of our dingy place in the southernmost slums of Satellite and grab a ratty white towel that I sometimes use to clean grease off of my duel runner. Thankfully it's clean now, and a little water won't make it unusable later.

I go back into the main room and sit beside them. "How long have you two been awake?"

"Couple hours," Blitz comments. _Didn't want to wake you._

"Where are Tank and Nerve?"

_Who knows... _"Pretty sure took the early shift this morning."

"There was a quake earlier," Rally adds with a smile pulling on his mouth. _Blitz screamed like a girl. _

"Another one? Why didn't I feel it?"

"It wasn't too major," Blitz tells me officially. "The area around here is just shifting a little. Some of the island is starting to break away again." _God, it had better not happen again._

I sigh. "How close to us?"

"Three or four miles," Blitz says. "A few of the slum residents had to move farther north." _Hopefully we don't have to move..._

"That sucks."

"Yeah," Rally replies. "Seems like Yusei got out of here in the nick of time." _It's the anniversary, too. I wonder if he's doing well. _

"He did, didn't he?" I mumble. It's still a sore subject even if Yusei did leave three months ago today. "It's odd not having him around."

"Yeah, it is. Waking up and not having random rock music in the background is weird," Blitz sighs. _And Guns n' Roses were starting to grow on me..._

"This place gets oddly quiet in the mornings once you guys leave," I comment, remembering. Tank and Nerve would have their typical shifts at the factory not too far from here, Blitz would retreat into the shack for his own work before leaving on any errand Yusei needed. The two of us would stay, hang out, talk, and put our last few touches on Yusei's duel runner before it was finally finished. Now, the guys will leave for a while and I'll loiter in silence, a quiet that tends to get eerie. "Kind of lonely."

"It was for a good reason, though," Blitz hisses. "Jack needs to be punished for what he did." _Freaking traitor. I hope Yusei really makes him pay._

"I don't want them to fight, though," Rally remarks in a small voice. _We were all friends once... Maybe they could make up or something. I believe Jack still has some good in him somewhere._

"That's a nice hope, Rally," I say. He catches my eye, confused, and I realize that I've just addressed his thoughts. "W-Wanting them not to fight, I mean."

"Yeah," Blitz adds. "Jack tried to drown you, remember? And he stole that duel runner and Yusei's best card."

"Yusei isn't petty enough to go just for a card and a duel runner, but he also wouldn't fight him for me!" Rally insists. "It's not like Jack tried to drown _Silvan_." That_ would be a completely different story..._

"What difference do I make?" I snap. "Just because I grew up with them doesn't make a difference. Besides, Jack would be too scared to throw me into the sound. He knows I'd come after him myself."

"Don't sell yourself short, Rally, you're just as important to Yusei as the rest of us," Blitz tells him.

"Besides us, Jack was out of line," I chime. "Something changed in him and Yusei felt it too. We were both close to him, but Yusei wanted to address this situation on his own."

"_Right_."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" I retort.

"Nothing," Blitz grumbles. _He didn't want us to go because we get in the way. He didn't want you to go because he didn't want his _girl_ to get involved and caught in the line of fire..._

I feel my blood begin to boil. "Fuck you, Blitz. I didn't go because this was Yusei's decision, all right? Not because he didn't want me to tag along. It's not my job to stick my head into his business."

"Hey, whoa," Rally says. "Let's just calm down." _Shit, Blitz, why?_

"I _am_ calm," I mutter. "I'm going for a ride." I toss the towel over my shoulder and steal back into the shack. My helmet is buried under a pile of power tools and cases of useless screws and nails—I find it by the low light reflecting of of the silver finish. I pull it from the heap and the nails spill down over the table, a mess that I'll probably have to clean up later. Right now, I don't really care.

They watch me as I leave, clutching the helmet between my clawed hands.

_Jeez, Silvan... calm down..._

_I'm only being truthful... Don't be so uptight about it._

"I am not _uptight_!" I exclaim, my voice jumping an octave.

Rally and Blitz exchange a look, and I remember that they aren't fully aware of my abilities. I rush out into the daylight before a question can be asked, feeling flustered.

My duel runner is always parked outside of the tunnel, hidden behind an oversized heap of scrap metal. It blends in well enough, due to the silver body paint. I roll it out onto the street and start the engine, cramming my blonde hair into my helmet. With a couple of revs, I'm off down the street and into the next block.

Riding always calms me down—the feel of the bike moving under my body, the wind moving past me and pushing me forward like it could carry me off into the sun. I feel more alive than I do on a daily basis.

My jeans have already dried from the water incident, leaving me warm with the light of the day and the wind with the last few traces of winter leaving us behind.

I don't really know where I'm going until I finally get there, and I have to stop and get off of my bike. It's the team's old hideout, with most of the windows busted out and a little more of the top floor withered away. It was still in bad condition when we used it, but it's in worse condition now that we don't.

When I get off of my duel runner, the vision hits me like a truck and I sink down to my knees. My hands are pressed against by sides of my temples, like my brain is growing inside my head and forcing my hands against my ears can dull the pain.

My eyes, still open, form an image different than the one my eyes should be seeing: I see the past instead of the present, and right now I'm seeing Kiryu Kyosuke run out of the door of the hideout. Kiryu is in prison. I know he's not here now.

He's followed closely by Jack and Crow, who I haven't seen in years. I also haven't seen them smile the way I see them now.

I see myself, the younger more naïve version of myself, running side by side with Yusei to see if her fifteen-year-old legs can match the stride of his sixteen year-old ones. They're laughing together, and I see myself brush the stray blonde hair away from my face. "Sorry we're late Kiryu—we were working on the prototype again."

"We would've been here sooner, but Silvan couldn't find the initiative to get off of her butt," Yusei retorts.

I watch myself slap his shoulder, and we both laugh again.

"Are the two of you ever going to give up on that thing?" Jack asks, hands placed on his hips in an attempt of protest. I miss Jack, miss his attitude and the passion he exerts. He's been gone for at least two years and he's taken stolen memories and mementos with him.

"Not until it works!" I say. "I know it will!"

"Probably not for a long time," Crow comments. Crow is still here in Satellite, but we don't talk much anymore. I can't help but wonder why.

"Not like we can get Pearson to help us," Yusei tells him. "I'm just impressed we've gotten as far as we have."

"Well, whatever. We have work to do today, and I hope the both of you are ready for it."

"Yeah," I say. "We're ready."

"Okay, so toda...y w..e...'r...e..."

The vision fades away, like bad static on a radio and I'm staring ahead at the hideout. My body gives out and I lay on the dust and dirt ground, the birthmark on my left arm blistering and burning in a gruesome green light that ironically looks very soothing. It doesn't matter to me; I've gotten used to the pain.

"_Asshole_," I grumble, staring at the mark like it has eyes and can cower under my glare. I've had it for a very long time, and I long ago presumed that it was the source of all the strange things I can do. It's the reason I wake up soaking wet, the reason I sometimes see the past, and the reason I can hear people's thoughts without being able to shut them out.

Actually, the waking up wet thing is relatively new. It started less than a month ago and I still don't know why it happens.

My old caretaker Martha told me that she once saw the symbol on my arm on the side of the Bible. I bet God was just like, "fuck this one person in particular. She can handle it."

The green light fades, leaving me staring at my arm. It's a familiar sight that I'm still not used to, black carvings violating white skin. People sometimes stare at it and then tell me they like my tattoo, which kinda pisses me off. I _wish_ it was a tattoo.

I get myself up off of the ground and brush the dirt from my jacket. The breeze blows the last drops of water from the ends of my hair and I brush my bangs from my eyes.

One of the reasons I'm not dealing with Yusei leaving very well is probably because he was the only one who knew about my abilities. He knew I would collapse in fits of headache sometimes. He knew I'd involuntarily read his mind. And he was completely okay with it. I felt bad a lot of the time, violating his privacy the way I sometimes did, but he was okay with that too.

Jack, Crow, and Kiryu only knew that I could see the past. Rally, Blitz, Tank, and Nerve only know that "I sometimes get really bad headaches." I have to withhold the mind reading from them now because I doubt they'd be happy about my accidental breaching of their innermost thoughts. Yusei has to be the most understanding out of all of my friends. Now he's gone, escaped to the city to handle unfinished business with one of our oldest friends.

Originally, I had planned to tag along to search for my missing brother, my twin who'd disappeared when we were very young. Everyone else is convinced that he's long dead, but I can feel his presence somewhere out there. The feeling that he's alive and in the city has increased considerably over the years. After a few incidents with Sector Security and Tetsu Trudge keeping an eye on us, Yusei determined that it would be dangerous if both of us were to go. I stayed here on his request to take care of our friends, so I guess that Blitz is right in a way.

I'm not Yusei's "girl," though. I considered knocking Blitz out when that thought surfaced, because the thought of us having that kind of relationship seems almost as ridiculous as it seems impossible. We've only ever been friends, and I'm sure that's all we're ever going to be.

Still, I know that I'm going to miss him more than I tell myself I am. After growing up with a person and spending almost every minute of your life with them, you don't know how hard it is to detach them from your life and your thoughts.

I pull myself back onto my duel runner and stare out over the cliff, where I have a perfect view of Neo Domino City across the sound. I hope that my friends are doing well.

I begin the ride back towards the subway tunnel, but I take the long way this time. I want to ride for as long as I can before I get back. I'll have to prepare myself for the onslaught of thoughts from the guys. I'll play off my slip up somehow; I usually do.

The longer way to the tunnel goes around the Barbaric After Damage Area, or the B. A. D. Area for short. A few children stand off to the side and watch as I pass, like they're wishing they could jump on the back of my duel runner and ride off with me. I'd take them if I had room, but I've got a lot of invisible passengers grabbing onto me that they probably wouldn't like.

As I'm taking the turn back towards the slums, I see old Daedalus bridge looming over the water. It's about twenty yards long and juts out across the sound.

It was said that there was a man here who wanted to escape Satellite and go to the city, so he began to build a bridge. People thought that he was crazy, but after a while they began to grow a hope that he would succeed. Sector Security heard about it, though, and chased after the man until they cornered him.

The man, refusing to be defeated, jumped off of his unfinished bridge across the sound and was never seen again. It's still unknown whether or not he made it to the city.

The bridge stands unfinished to this day and serves as a beacon of hope to many Satellite-born citizens. Probably to Yusei, too, who's been in the city for a solid three months.

I take a sharp turn and ride back into the slums on the southeast end of Satellite, which is where we've been living since the duel gang broke up.

It's been a long time, but Yusei and I used to be in a duel gang called Team Satisfaction. Back when we were young and stupid, Yusei, Jack, Crow, Kiryu, and I tried liberating Satellite of all of the criminals prowling the streets. It ended disastrously, landing Kiryu in prison and breaking up our friend group. Jack and Crow went their complete separate ways from us, while Yusei and I stayed friends and continued to work on our prototype duel runner. Yusei only left because Jack returned and stole the duel runner we'd worked so hard on in order to become a big-shot turbo duelist in the city.

I continue down until I reach the south end of the tunnel and steer my duel runner into its hiding place. I tuck my helmet under my arm as I hop down the stairs, preparing myself for any accusatory thoughts that begin to bombard me.

...nothing.

I haven't been gone that long, and I don't know where Rally and Blitz could've gone for the short amount of time I was absent. It's very odd.

I take a long look around myself and walk into the shack, where I set my helmet on the desk. The computer is on and set to Blitz's typical program for busywork. The chair has been torn out and stands at an angle, like someone abruptly stood and walked out of it.

I sweep my eyes from side to side, listening. There's still nothing.

"Rally!" I call. My voice echoes. "Blitz? This isn't funny, you guys! Where are you?"

I trek a little ways down the tunnel to where we hole ourselves up at night; empty, as expected. But I still can't hear anything.

"Guys! Come out! I'm serious, this isn't a joke! Where are you?"

There's no sign of life anywhere, and the air around me has dropped a few degrees; it makes me feel even more alone. This isn't like when the guys leave to do their daily routines and I'm alone—it feels like I'm being watched.

I walk to the other end of the tunnel again, when suddenly, I hear it.

_Another one. _

It vibrates to my left and I jump to the right at the exact same moment a man in a suit reaches out to grab me.

From the cut of the collar, it's a business suit and those are always tailored to fit a certain way. He won't be able to move as well wearing it, but then again he probably didn't expect that he'd have to.

There could be more, but for now I push over a pile of recently gathered scrap metal and bolt for the exit to the tunnel, where I see two other men in business suits before I hear their thoughts.

I'm too distracted calculating my escape to listen to them, though, and that's not good for me—I don't know what they plan to do.

One of them lashes out and grabs my wrist. I'm able to twist out of his grasp and turn him in the other direction; I did learn a little bit of street fighting from my days in Team Satisfaction, which tends to be useful more often than not.

I slip past the other guard and up the stairs. A few feet away, I can see another man in a suit pushing Blitz in one direction, who's blindfolded.

"Blitz!" I exclaim. It probably wasn't my best idea to shout out, since I already have three other guards behind me and one in front of me. Maybe I can slip behind their attacks and worm out of them, but I'm a 110-lb girl with about a foot less height than they have. Fighting hand-to-hand will not work out well.

Fortunately, he hears me, and his thoughts cry out to me. _Silvan! _"Silvan, run! Get away from here!"

"But Blitz—"

"Forget about us! Get to the city! Find Yusei! He needs our help!"

Help? But why? Yusei's always been able to take care of himself. Why does he need our help?

_Come on, trust me...! _"Just go, Silvan!"

Someone's hand is on my shoulder, and I dart out of the way before it can grasp any part of me.

The thoughts of all of the different guards are bombarding me, telling me which way they'll go and what they'll do and why the _hell_ can't they catch one tiny girl.

I run back around the tunnel and dig out my duel runner, abandoning my helmet in the shack and thinking of nothing but escape. The guards try to stop me by throwing themselves in my path, but I'm too quick for them and they're eventually watching me ride off towards the B. A. D. Area.

The wind blows my hair behind me and stings as it meets my eyes, but I don't stop. I don't know why I don't, because I'm not sure where to go. I'm confused, I don't know why people have come to take my friends and me somewhere unknown, and I don't know why Yusei needs my help. I really wish Blitz would've been more specific, but he obviously didn't have much time to.

I wish Yusei was here to tell me what I should do—he always gave me painfully good advice, which I guess is another downside to his leaving.

Then again, what if it isn't? I've always sort of relied on Yusei for everything, and now that he's gone I have to rely on myself. Maybe he does need help and I'm the only one who can give it to him.

It's one of those reasons that I end up riding all the way to the northern end of the slums to knock on Martha's door.

She opens the door, sees my wild eyes, wind-blown hair, and the handlebars of my duel runner clutched tightly between my fingers, and shakes her head almost unthinkingly before welcoming me in.

"First of all," she chastises me once my duel runner is leaned safely up against the oak tree in the front of the yard, "you haven't come back here in three years, Silvan Hayley Levine, and you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to grow up so quickly."

"You aren't _glad_ to see me, Martha?" I retort.

"I'll have none of that sass while you're in my house, young lady, but yes—I'm glad to see you." Her face softens and she invites me to sit at the same table I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at when I was a child. "You look like you've seen the dead; what brings you here?"

"I don't know what to do," I tell her. "So much has happened to put me here."

"So start at the beginning."

I brush the tangles from my wind-blown hair and begin at the breaking up of Team Satisfaction, of which she witnessed the forming but not the destruction. I tell her about Jack Atlas, who stole the duel runner Yusei and I had broken our backs over building and escaped to the city to become the "King of Turbo Duels." I tell her about helping Yusei create a new duel runner and his own escape to the city exactly three months ago. I tell her what conspired this morning, and end by telling her that I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next.

Martha sits and processes the information. Her mind isn't quiet, but all I can take from it are half formed thoughts and the chewing of the words I've released into the space between us.

"What's the difficulty?" She asks finally. "Yusei needs your help? So go help him. You've always helped each other, haven't you?"

"W-Well, yeah, but—"

"But what? Listen to your friends, Silvan. It'll get you to a good place in your life. And aren't you the least bit curious about what's going on across the sound?"

"Maybe a little," I tell her.

"You've always been rooted in place, Silvan," Martha continues. "Even when your brother disappeared, you kept telling me he was still alive but never once thought of going after him."

"We were ten, Martha," I reply hoarsely, "I wasn't strong enough. Besides, I was going to go after him but Yusei asked me to stay here to avoid danger. What do you expect me to do?"

"Mull your time until the damned danger passes! What are you waiting for now?"

"I'm afraid," I admit. "A bunch of big scary guys just took my friends somewhere, and I don't know where they are and Yusei could be in danger... I just don't know what to do."

"Well, firstly, I don't think you've had breakfast. If you're going to the city, I expect you to have a meal or two before you take such a long ride."

"What are you—"

"Are you honestly going to let your friends' disappearances be in vain? They gave you valuable information and I suggest you use it." Martha smirks slightly. "And since Yusei is so in love with technicalities, when you see him you can tell him that you were technically avoiding danger like he'd asked you to."

I smile to myself. "You're golden, Martha."

"You're a rock hard girl, Silvan. You won't be scared for long. As I mentioned before, any requests for breakfast? I don't have many little children running around here any more. My time today is yours."

"You don't have to do this—"

"Oh, but I do. You're still a child and every child in Satellite is under my protection. Are you feeling pancakes or something a little more natural?"

I exhale. "Got any apples?"

"The basket in the middle of the table. I'm definitely making pancakes."

It's always futile to argue with Martha, so I don't. I do, however, inform her that I'm going to the garage down the road to pick up a new helmet. I'm afraid to go back to the subway and get my old one in case the group of well-dressed guards are still there and waiting for my return.

I walk there, because it isn't too far and my duel runner tends to be kind of conspicuous. I need to slow down for a minute anyways to plot out the path I'll take.

Where will I go? How will I find Yusei? What will happen when I do find him?

It's all a lot to think about, so I pick up a map of Neo Domino City to help while I'm browsing through the scavenged helmets up for sale. I find one that isn't particularly nice to look at and not very sturdy, but fits my head better than the rest. Materials are so cheap here, I can afford to get things to fix it up once I get back to Martha's.

I drop my finds and some money on the counter. The employee there eyes me. "You picking up some materials for your boyfriend?"

I cut through his gaze with a harsh glare. "They're for me."

"A-Ah, I-I see." He takes the money and slides what I've selected into a very obviously reused bag with a ratty drawstring. "Sorry about the confusion."

"No trouble," I say, keeping my tone as level as possible. I walk out trying to ignore his impending thoughts, which involve questioning why "such a hot girl would want such boyish things."

It's a familiar problem that a lot of people who meet me wonder about—I think I'm the only existing female life form who can stand to get her hands dirty with machinery. There's a reason I only hang around guys. The moment I meet another girl with the same interests as me, I'll have found my best friend.

Once I've arrived in Martha's front yard, I crack open the extra compartment in my duel runner and fish my tools out before I go back inside. A lot of them are old and given to me by Yusei; he used to bring back a lot of things when he found extras. The rest are in fair condition and bought from assorted shops and street corner merchants once I'd scraped enough money together.

The most expensive things here tend to be technological equipment and tools. Scrap and other materials are worth less than clothing, which is barely worth anything anyways.

"That didn't take you very long," Martha remarks once I'm inside.

"I knew what I was looking for," I tell her. "Mind if I make the table my work space?"

"Just leave a little room. The pancakes are almost finished."

I pull the chair out and pop the thin windbreaker out of the old helmet and get to work reinforcing the inside with some old sheet metal. I remember finding Yusei's helmet and making almost the same modifications.

"The things they sell in that shop are just getting worse and worse," Martha grumbles. "People should be able to buy helmets that will actually protect them without major alterations."

"This is Satellite, Martha. I don't expect much."

She rolls her eyes and puts a stack of pancakes on the empty spot on the table while I continue to work on the helmet, taking periodic bites of food.

Martha's eyes skim over the map of Neo Domino City; I feel the wheels in her head turning, taking in information. After years of reading Martha's mind, I've adjusted to the fact that she's one of those people who just knows about things without effort. When she does take time to think about things, she only processes them and her thoughts come out of her mouth. It's one of the reasons I stayed around Martha when I was a kid, because listening to everyone's thoughts without having an off switch gave me bad headaches—worse than I got when I lapsed into a vision. Listening to pulsing silence around Martha made it all go away.

"Do you know where you're going yet?" She asks.

"That map says that the Pipeline gets out somewhere in the downtown district," I comment. "That leads up to the boulevard where Sector Security is. I'm thinking I'll hole myself up somewhere before that for the night so the cops don't catch me. After that, I'll probably roam around the districts until I come across Yusei. I know the kinds of places where he'd be comfortable, and it's been three months—anywhere with an operating duel circuit can probably direct me to him."

"So you _have_ thought this through."

"Somewhat," I say. "I predict that everything will go wrong eventually, so I'm prepared to play it by ear."

Martha scoffs. "Be optimistic."

"All right, everything will _probably_ go wrong eventually."

She exhales. "Never mind. Keep doing what you're doing."

I laugh under my breath and listen, falling back into the rhythm of fixing the helmet and taking periodic nibbles of pancake.

Honestly, everything in my life goes wrong eventually. I've just learned to go with it. On the bright side, I've gotten a lot better at winging it so I won't be worried when something does go awry.

Martha is washing some dishes and I'm securing the inside padding of the helmet when there's a knock at the door. "I've forgotten," she mumbles on her way to the door. "It's Thursday..."

I'm sliding a thicker piece of plastic into the slot for the windbreaker when I hear a familiar voice and freeze. "Hey Martha, what's going on with you today?"

"Many things," she sighs. "Won't you come in, Crow? Tell me how your week has been."

I hear his footsteps as he comes into the room behind me and he stops. His mind is racing, thinking a thousand things at the same time—he's the same Crow I remember. "..._Silvan_?"

"Crow?" I ask nervously, turning to face him.

He really is the same—his hair is in the same wild spikes it always is with his ridiculous headband, beat up slacks, and 'M' shaped Detention Center scar on his forehead. The only difference in him is the number of prison scars he has, which has gone up to three. I wonder what he's been up to in the three years we've been apart.

He stares at me for a second, mind racing too fast for me to completely understand, and his face lights up. I don't have time to react before he's yanked me into his arms and is laughing. "Where the hell have you been? I haven't seen you in forever!"

I throw my arms around him to keep myself from falling to the floor; my palms are slick on his sweaty shoulders, but it's Crow and I'm not bothered. He's remained the rough yet kind and goofy guy I grew up with.

"I-I've been here," I say halfheartedly. "I'm sorry I haven't come around. I was a little busy."

"You look pretty busy now," he remarks, looking around me at the table covered in my materials and the half-finished helmet. "What exactly are you doing?"

"It's a long story," I sigh, pulling my chair out and sitting back down, taking the helmet in one of my hands and staring at it.

"Well, I think I have time. I come by Martha's every Thursday to pick up the garbage."

"You do?" I ask.

Martha comes back into the kitchen. "He brings it to the plant on the other end of the district and brings the money they give us for it back."

"That's really nice of you," I say.

"You sound surprised, Sil," Crow remarks with a smile pulling on one side of his mouth.

"Well, you _did_ used to steal from Sector Security..."

"What do you mean, 'used to'?"

I laugh to myself and Crow makes a movement for me to speak. "So, I believe you have a story for me?"

I exhale and stare at the helmet in my hands. "All right..."

I keep my hands busy with the helmet, securing the new windbreaker and finishing the padding on the inside before laying out newspaper to spray the thing silver. At the same time, I'm telling Crow the story of Jack's betrayal and how Yusei left for Neo Domino City three months ago. I explain how he asked me to stay and how I'm going to leave tonight because of the events this morning.

My hands and my mouth have busied themselves, and my mind is busy trying to follow Crow's. He has a habit of thinking quickly, which makes it difficult to keep up even if I'm insanely focused.

I set down the can of spray paint while Crow processes all of his fast-paced thoughts pull back and slow down. "Okay... Guess you have been busy."

"Yeah," I say.

"I'm not going to stop you from going—you have a lot to accomplish across the sound. I think you should go." He cracks a grin. "And I trust you can still kick ass if need be."

"If need be," I scoff. "You're hilarious."

"Remember to be careful. Do you still have that, uh... _Thing_ going on?"

I push up my sleeve and brandish the black mark on my arm. "Honestly, did you expect anything less?"

"Thought so. I hear there are crazy people in that city who deliberately look for people with abilities like yours. Just be on the lookout, 'kay?"

"I promise, Crow. Thanks for being so understanding about this whole thing."

"Why wouldn't I be?" He asks, a laugh rumbling in his chest. "We're not kids anymore."

"Not according to Martha!"

She leers at me from the sink, and I laugh a little.

"Since you're still a child, Silvan, I think you should take a nap so you'll be well rested for your ride tonight."

"Maybe I _will_," I retort. "My helmet needs to dry anyways."

But before I decide to flop onto the sofa by the window a room over, I poke my head into the kitchen for one last precaution before I dare shut my eyes.

"Martha, do you have any towels?" The last thing I need is to wake up wet twice.

* * *

I sit on my duel runner, staring across the bridge to the entrance to the Pipeline.

I survived one nap with a towel over myself, which thankfully kept me dry. I've said my goodbyes, endlessly thanked Martha for being my voice of reason, and told Crow that I'd see him soon. I know I'll be returning to Satellite eventually.

It's nearly midnight, which will begin my three minute trip to the city. I'm praying that I make it and nothing goes wrong, but I'm ready to accommodate for any issues.

My foot taps nervously on the accelerator, when suddenly a buzzer sounds and the sheet metal door slides open. I slam my foot down and my duel runner shoots forward, the wind blowing a few loose strands of pale blonde hair around my eyes.

The inside of the Pipeline has been cleaned out for its maintenance, but the air still stinks of garbage and loose particles of who knows what are flying back against my windbreaker. The lights along the sides of the tunnel cast a yellowish green light over the line.

My stomach is jumping, I'm no nervous. I don't want to get caught and I don't want to get trapped in here with the garbage.

I told myself I had the situation under control and planned out, but now I'm not so sure.

My hands lock tighter around the handlebars and my heart beats faster when I feel a familiar sensation, like my brain growing too large for my skull. The green glow nips at the edge of my line of sight and I struggle to keep my body and my duel runner straight as I lapse into a vision.

I'm suddenly watching Yusei ride down the tunnel beside a Sector Security vehicle, a duel runner I recognize to be Tetsu Trudge's. Trudge has been on our cases since we were a duel gang, always trying to find some way to put us all into the Detention Center. It looks like he and Yusei are dueling, until the siren goes off again and trash begins to flood into the line.

Trudge is yelling obscenities as Yusei as he avoids a steady stream of trash and narrowly slides into a door that seems to be sliding closed.

"YOU WON'T ESCAPE NEXT TIME, _FUDO_!"

Trash is flying left and right, and my instinct is to swerve to avoid it instead of facing it head on. My mind knows somewhere that it's only a vision, but my body seems to be reacting on its own.

Thankfully, the vision begins to fade and I make a narrow turn while the glow on my left arm continues to pierce the polluted air.

The clock I have running has recorded a minute and thirty seconds I've been riding; I've eaten through half of my time and I'm still not sure how long the line goes.

With an odd haze of the vision still upon me and the mark on my arm continuing to cast a green glow, I spot a wall growing closer to my front. The end of the Pipeline.

To the left, I see the same door I just saw Yusei slip into with a red light glowing somewhere beyond it. I relax and turn into the door as my counter hits the two-minute mark.

Beyond it, the only thing giving me light is my mark. Its glow should have gone out by now, but for some reason it stays bright until I've broken through and am standing in the cool air of Neo Domino City.

I've made it this far. From here, the only place left to go is up. I tap the accelerator and push on.

* * *

**As you probably noticed, I first decided to be a bit less PG. Back when I tended to watch the dubbed versions of YGO rather than subbed, the censored style just kind of rubbed off on me. I like writing less censored so much better, because sometimes a character just needs to say the word fuck.**

**I also switched around the names to the Japanese translations of them. The Nerve/Blitz thing confused me at first because they switched for the English dub (I guess because Nerve/Nervin sounds a bit more nerdy) and now the guy with the glasses and the blue dreadlocks is Blitz while Nerve is the tougher looking guy with the bandana.**

**Obviously the storyline has also changed, and I'm hoping that I've gotten better at writing since starting Misery Business.**

**Thank you for bearing with my flakiness and—to all the former followers of this story, thank you for following again! For all the new followers, I hope you like this story!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	2. Revelry

**Hey again! Thanks for following. Here's the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy it! **

* * *

The city smells fresh, with thick green trees and brightly colored flowers flowing out of every open spot of soil in the concrete. Buildings fly up into the atmosphere, lights just beginning to peek out as the last few people go home for the night.

It's a real city, very different from Satellite, but I do like it almost immediately. There's a life in the air I can't feel in the streets of Satellite.

I ride carefully along the street, the glow on my arm continuing to break through the cool air around me. I stop for a moment to stare at it, waiting for it to go away. When it doesn't, I continue to ride down the Main Street. This section of the city seems to be the most metropolitan, with shops and tall buildings.

I ride down the boulevard and see the buildings grow taller, particularly the Sector Security building growing closer in comparison. I'm thinking that I should turn around and go a different way to stay unnoticed, but the moment I angle my duel runner down a different road, red and blue lights start flashing behind me.

"Shiiiiiiiiiit," I groan. I think that it'll only be worse if I try to run—I can try to pretend like I'm from the city and hope it sticks.

An officer on a duel runner pulls over beside me and stands with his hands on his hips. "Do you know what time it is, miss?"

"No, sir," I say as innocently as I possibly can.

"Well, it's a few minutes past midnight. How old are you?"

"Seventeen, sir."

"Curfew is at ten for those under eighteen. I'm going to have to take you in for breaking it."

My hand, which I've put over my mark to hide the glowing, clenches, and I start formulating an escape plan. Which way can I go that can give me an exit? I don't know this city, so there's no telling which way I could go or where the road I'm on will cut off. I know this is where everything is supposed to go wrong, so I might as well wing it anyways.

I'm about to slam on the accelerator when a voice comes up behind me. "There you are!"

I turn, and there's a man in a long dark trench coat at the side of the alley, his russet hair styled in an unusual upward curl and eyes the color of a venomous reptile. The most unusual thing about him, though, isn't his appearance—it's his mind. Every time my mind reaches out to try and read his, it's like I'm purposely pointed in another direction so that I'm not looking directly at his thoughts. When I focus harder and try deliberately to read him, the feedback I get is like garbled voices on a radio. Nothing is understandable and it hurts my consciousness just trying to feel it.

"I was so concerned!" He exclaims, voice too sweet and smooth for my liking. "When you didn't come back for curfew, I thought something terrible had happened to you! I'm so sorry, officer, this one is a bit of a rule-breaker."

The Security stares at him like he's looking at food that's gone rotten. "That's... Fine... You're one of those Arcadia guys, aren't you?"

"Why, of course! You've heard of our movement?"

"Yeah..." The Security's thoughts drift to something on the line of fear. "Have a good night." He leaves on his duel runner without another word, the only thing on his mind seeming to be escape.

I stare at the man, trying not to pay attention to his strange thoughts. "Th-Thanks. Who are you?"

"I think the better question is, what are you hiding there?" He points to the green glow coming out from between my fingers.

I pull my arm behind my back. "I'm not hiding anything." At least, nothing you'd be interested in.

"On the contrary, I think that you are. Your mark—let me see it."

"Huh?"

"Let me see your mark."

I don't trust this guy, but he did just bail me out. I doubt showing him something he probably knows nothing about won't do much damage to the situation.

Almost reluctantly, I brandish the mark in front of him and he stares, the green glow catching in his eyes. "Intriguing. I've never seen anything like this before."

I kind of figured. "Why did you help me?"

"I could feel your power all the way across the sound, in Satellite. I felt you coming closer—I had to come and find you before you got yourself into trouble."

"Pardon—my power?"

The man stares at me curiously. "Of course. You are psychic, aren't you?"

"Psychic? That's ridiculous!"

"Is it _really_?"

There's something about the tone his voice takes on that keeps me from answering, and a smirk curls up the corners of his mouth. "Coming from Satellite, you probably have nowhere to belong. Follow me." He waves his hand and walks in one direction, expecting that I follow him. Seeing no other option, I ride behind him with one boot skimming over the ground in case we stop abruptly.

"I don't even known your name and I'm following you somewhere unknown," I grumble under my breath.

"It's Divine," he says simply. "And yours?"

"I'm Silvan."

"_Silvan_. What a lovely name."

"Thanks...?"

He leads me along the streets and past the Sector Security Headquarters. The guards outside leer at us as we go past, but Divine waves harmlessly at them on our way by. I detect more notes of fear in their minds, which confuses me. Divine doesn't seem very frightening, but then again I can't read his mind and there's a very dubious vibe coming off of him—there's no telling what I should think of him.

The building he seems to be taking me towards is about as tall as Sector Security; lights spring up around in the grass and reflect off of the many windows.

"Take your duel runner around here," Divine directs me. "The riding instructor will tend to it in the morning."

"Riding instructor?"

"All will be explained," he replies simply.

I obey and wheel my duel runner to the front of the building, where I park it beside a hedge in full view of the front of the building. I take my helmet off and my hair tumbles down onto my back—Divine stares at me.

"What's the problem?" I say.

"_Fascinating_," he mumbles to himself. "You've come at last."

"What are you talking about?"

"I will explain." Divine goes into the building and I follow at a distance in case I find an opportunity to bolt. This place doesn't feel right to me.

"Welcome to the Arcadia Movement, a haven for psychic duelists."

"Psychic duelists?" I ask.

"Yes. Those who hold exceptional abilities like yours and can occasionally use them in duels as well as in their lives."

"How do you know about my abilities?" I say warily.

"I've told you—I feel them," Divine replies. "I can feel when someone has psychic abilities. Yours are particularly powerful. I've felt them since you were a very small child."

"Okay—you're creeping me out."

"This is much to take in, since you obviously haven't much knowledge of your own powers. I've never seen such a unique mark before, either."

"You say that like you've seen other marks," I mumble.

"You would be surprised what I've seen. After all, I did begin this movement and I did expect to find strange things." Divine walks along the main floor and stops every so often so I can catch up, despite my attempts to stay behind him.

"Why is there a need for a psychic duelist haven?"

Divine gives an easy laugh, like its a question he's heard before. "I suppose you don't have this problem in Satellite, but here, psychics are heavily prejudiced. Everyone here has been bullied, threatened, feared by a great many people and alienated into believing that they are monsters for their special gifts. I've created this place to show them that their power is exactly that—a gift—and learn how to show those who have bullied them that they won't stand for it."

The notion is a good one, but the way he conveys it isn't. He sounds almost like a general reporting to his commanding officer about how his troops are holding up.

"I see," I tell him. "Since you're so knowledgeable about this subject, can you tell me why my mark won't go out?"

"I'm sure I don't know. The mark I have come across glows to show signs of power, but that's all I'm aware of. There are also times when the one I'm familiar with glows when another of its kind is near."

"Other people have marks like this?"

"Oh yes. It appears you aren't the only one to have been chosen."

"Chosen?"

Footsteps echo down a hall in front of us, and I see a girl come around the corner. She's a little younger than me with dark reddish hair in pixie spikes and wide almond colored eyes. She looks exceptionally tired, like she's just woken up, but the muscles in her arms are pulled taught as she grabs nervously at her right arm. A red glow escapes from her fingers and I see the shape of a claw standing out against her sleeve.

"Divine," she whimpers without noticing me, "it's burning again."

At the same moment, I'm hit with a headache so intense, I lose my balance and fall to the floor. Color explodes behind my eyelids and sounds have increased to a high pitched keening—the green glow intensifies into a fire so hot that I feel like my arm should be melting off.

I claw at the mark, my clenched teeth the only thing keeping me from letting out a scream that I'm sure would wake the dead. It's never hurt this much before, and not even the ice cold tiles on the floor can sooth the burning pain.

My mind is everywhere, focusing on everything at once but also nothing. The girl shrieks in the back of my mind and the vision forces itself upon me, suddenly turning the Arcadia building into a house with fire licking along the walls and a little girl standing terrified while a man I suspect to be her father sits hunched against one wall.

"F-Father?" The girl asks in concern, running to his aid. Tears are welling in her eyes and they come rushing over when he holds out a hand to ward her off. I see his lips moving—calling the girl a monster—but no sound comes out, and the scene dissipates to utter darkness before changing again to a middle school where desks have been tossed over and the roof has been blown open by the vines of a stray duel monster. Students at the school are running away, screaming in terror and the same girl (only older) sits on a pile of rubble and attempts to dry her eyes. There is darkness after that, and then all I see is the color red and flashes of anger and the vision coming quicker on me at the same time I'm trying to focus on one thing. There's pain and red and more pain and red and I can't distinguish reality from the vision and it hurts and I can't breathe and I want to die and so does she.

The vision falls back a little, letting me see the world in red tones and dark hues. The girl is still there, staring at me with wide terrified eyes and Divine is saying something—something I can't hear—while darkness nips at the edges of my eyes and I finally lapse into something of a non-reality.

* * *

The dream is very realistic, like it always is, and I'm almost floating as I walk through the laboratory I've been in a hundred times. I move past an important looking panel with a lot of flashing lights and buttons until I find two scientists talking to each other in low voices. They're both holding children, but one has both of his arms full with two.

"I'm so sorry about Aria," the taller scientist, a man with dark hair and dreaming blue eyes says.

"Yes," the other, a man with pale blond hair swept out of his eyes replies. His steps are light and quick, like he's rocking the children in his arms. "I don't know what I'll do without her."

"You seem to be taking her death very well."

"I'm not," the blond scientist laughs. "I'm just fantastic at hiding things. Besides, she's not completely gone—she's left me with my children."

"Twins, it's a shock," the dark haired scientist replies. "I recall you mentioning she was only due to deliver one."

"I suppose the girl was a surprise, but that doesn't matter. They're beautiful children, and they have her eyes."

I see the two children the blond scientist holds adjust themselves in his arms and blink at nothing with the same silvery blue eyes. The child on the right, the girl I think, looks up and catches eyes with me before looking up at her father.

The dark haired man laughs. "Curious, isn't she?"

"Yes, that's how I can tell them apart. Evan stays put and Silvan doesn't stop moving."

The child in the dark haired man's arms begins to squirm and whimper. "Eri, I think Yusei wants you."

A woman with her brown hair pulled back comes from across the room and takes the child from the man; the baby stops making noise and settles into his mother's arms. The woman smiles down at her child and crosses the room again to check on what she had been doing before.

"Would you like assistance?" The dark-haired scientist asks in amusement.

The blond scientist laughs a little and hands the girl child to the other man, who smiles down at her. "Hello, Silvan. You do have your mother's eyes. It's a wonder they both turned out blonde, considering Aria was brunette."

"It is, isn't it? Genetics are odd."

"Hakase," the woman, Eri, calls from across the room. "I think there's a problem with the interface."

"We'd better take a look, " the dark haired scientist, Hakase, tells the blond scientist.

"Yes, let's."

They make their way towards Eri when a red light begins to blink and an ear piercing siren goes off.

"Soren," Hakase says carefully, "take the children. This is a bigger problem than we thought."

The blonde scientist takes the girl twin from him and runs out of the room alongside Eri while Hakase begins furiously pressing some important looking buttons. The dream fizzles out in spots of red and black, and I wake up.

I wake up soaking wet, of course, and shivering because someone blasted the air conditioner. "J-J-Jesus C-C-Christ, it's _c-c-cold_ in h-here!"

The room is small with a bed up against the farthest corner of the room, a dresser, and a small window that gives me a view of the east end of the city. From the looks of outside, it looks like it's midday. I squeeze the water out of my hair and roll off of the bed, turning around in the room. A faint echo of the earth-shattering headache I got last night returns in a flash of vertigo that makes me stumble as I go towards the door.

I push it open and stagger into the hallway, which is lined with doors similar to mine. Water is dripping on the floor behind me as I trace my way through the unfamiliar lines of doors and hallways. When I turn a corner there, I see the same girl I did last night and jump. She takes a step back and stands almost defensively, while I clench my muscles in expectancy of another head splitting vision.

When nothing happens, I feel us both begin to relax a little.

"Are you all right?" She asks warily. "You collapsed last night and you've been sleeping since then."

"I think so," I say carefully. "A-Are _you_ all right?"

"As much as I'll ever be," the girl replies. "I saw your mark, but I still don't understand."

"What don't you understand? I don't see things like that willingly. It just happens sometimes. You don't think I'd put myself through that agony willingly, do you?"

"I-I guess not."

"Right," I sigh. "I heard you scream in the middle of it."

Sheepishly, the girl looks at her shoes. "I was there. I could see it. Everything that you were seeing."

"Oh." Of all the visions I've had (in addition to being the most painful I've ever experienced) I'd never once dragged someone in with me. "D-Did you feel it, too?"

"No. But I know how much it hurt."

"I see," I say, even though I don't.

"You're one of the strongest of us I've ever sensed," the girl says thoughtfully, examining me carefully. "Who are you?"

"My name is Silvan Levine," I say quietly. "What's yours?"

"Aki," the girl answers. "Aki Izayoi. How long have you had your powers?"

"Since I was very young," I answer. "I think I was seven and I had a vision of Satellite separating from Neo Domino City."

"Do you always have visions of the past?"

"Not always. Usually at the strangest of times. They've never been as strong as last night's, though."

Aki stares at me pensively. "Can I see your mark?"

I tentatively roll my sleeve up. Her eyes skim over it, and I see a touch of relief in her eyes. "It doesn't look like mine at all. Mine glows when other marks like mine are near..."

Now she seems troubled. "Odd," I say.

"Yes."

The situation is very awkward, but the strangest part is that it's completely silent. Maybe not so much verbally, but otherwise. Her mind is completely silent. Not a peep or a whisper, even if I focus my hardest and search everywhere I can. I don't know if it's that she has no thoughts, or just that I can't hear her somehow.

"What I saw last night," I ask, "was it your past?"

"Some of it," Aki sighs. "I don't spend much time around people I meet because of the past, nor do people I meet want to spend much time around me—"

"You seem fine to me," I interrupt. There's something about this girl and her nonexistent thoughts that seem strange to me, but also intriguing. The fact that my mark reacted to hers could mean something. Maybe this Aki chick could be the key to figuring out why I have my mark.

"You're wrong. This mark makes me a monster," she says under her breath.

"A monster? That's ridiculous. You don't look like a monster. You look like a normal teenage girl trying to fit in like the rest of us. And that mark doesn't make you odd in any way, it makes you special. I bet no one has one exactly like it."

Aki blinks at me. "You're an interesting girl, Silvan."

"So I've been told."

"Divine mentioned that you're very strong. We should go see him, since you're awake now. Erm, by the way... Why are you all wet?"

I exhale. "The effects of the mark. Sometimes I wake up soaking wet and I have absolutely no idea why."

"Maybe Divine could find out why. He formed this entire movement and helped me understand my own abilities. He's good at those things."

"Divine seems very important to you," I muse as we walk down the hallway together.

"He took me in," Aki says carefully, watching the steps she takes. "Showed me that I didn't have to think about it. All I had to do was feel and I wouldn't be afraid anymore. Divine is always there for me, and he understands what I've been through."

"I see," I say. "I guess I had someone like Divine, too. Only, he grew up with me. My mother and father died when I was a baby, so all I've ever had were my friends. He was the only one to stay with me until we'd grown up. He knows about the things I'm capable of and he's all right with them even when I could hurt him with them."

"What a nice person," Aki replies. "I've forgotten to ask, Silvan—what brings you here?"

"O-Oh. I guess I didn't really have anywhere else to go." I'm planning on continuing and telling her the story about how I came from Satellite, but she cuts me off with determination in her eyes.

"You're welcome here, Silvan. We understand what you go through with your abilities and there isn't anything to fear here."

Despite the fact that I've barely known her for five minutes and I can't hear one thought in her head, I think that I've gotten a pretty good read on Aki. Because of her psychic abilities, she was cast out as a child and Divine adopted her into Arcadia. However, the bullshit she's spewing about "understanding" seems like something that was forcefully spoon-fed. There will always be people who don't understand you, no matter how safe you think you are, and the point is to get over it and love yourself no matter what anyone says. It sounds like Divine put it into her head and it stuck—I wouldn't be surprised if it's her mantra. The kind of messed up childhood she's had would entail a craving for acceptance and understanding. Besides, she's someone with a need for a place to belong, and this place is where she's told herself she belongs.

I'm automatically more curious about Divine than I was in the beginning. I pride myself in being able to read people without peeking at their thoughts, and he has this look in his eye that makes me think that he wouldn't do something nice for someone without expecting something in return.

For some unknown reason, I say, "Right," as convincingly as I can.

As curious as I am about Divine, though, and as much as I'd like to look into Aki's abilities to see just how similar we are, I can't. I didn't ride through the Pipeline just to come and bunk with a bunch of cryptic psychics. I sense that Divine isn't who he pretends to be, but that isn't my problem. This Aki girl has very obviously been mislead and twisted into his world, but that isn't my problem either. Maybe I'd make it my problem if I had more time and knowledge about the situation I'm currently in, but that's not a thing. At the moment, I'm contemplating an escape attempt because I just can't stay here. I have to find Yusei and figure out what I need to do to help him and how to find my friends in Satellite.

Aki's fingers move nervously around as we enter an elevator that takes us two floors up. I can sense her movements, strong but not so sure of themselves, and make a mental note of how fidgety she is; it seems like an unusual habit for a psychic, since they're rumored to be deadly accurate with whatever the hell they spend their time doing.

It might just be personal experience, but I've never gotten anything done with fidgety hands. Sometimes Yusei would even stop what he was doing and hold my hands steady when they needed to be the most. It's been a long time since then, when he was my guideline, and now my hands waver no more.

"You seem irrationally nervous," I say, my words breaking through the silence between us.

"I'm not nervous," Aki replies, though she doesn't sound very sure of herself. "I just don't like my hands to be still."

"Fair enough," I say amicably.

The elevator doors slide open onto a floor that looks almost exactly like the one we just left, but without doors lining the halls. We go into a single door that trails into what appears to be a study overlooking the front of Neo Domino's downtown. Divine is inside, speaking with a woman in odd robes. They look up when we enter.

"Silvan, glad to see you've awoken. That was quite the scene you made last night," Divine remarks.

"Yeah," I mumble. "It was _definitely_ an experience."

"I see you've met Aki."

"I have."

"You can learn much from her, Silvan. The two of you are quite similar and Aki has grown very accustomed to life here. The two of you should get along swimmingly."

"Of course, Divine," Aki tells him pleasantly.

I nod silently to show that I'm listening. Divine appears to be assuming that I'll stay, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

"Now, Silvan, I must ask your story as to your purpose for being here in the city. We would very much like for you to continue to live here, but we'd also like to know where you planned on going in the first place."

It's a weird question, but only to me. It's almost like he wants to know where I'm going so he can provide an excuse to stop me from going.

Aki and the woman in the robes stare at me expectantly, waiting for an answer to Divine's impending question. To be honest, I don't know if I should answer truthfully or lie. Or what if I didn't tell the whole truth?

I don't know. Psychics are odd people, especially these, but I want them to trust me so I know more about them. Something in the air isn't right, and it begins with Divine—the only way I can get him to trust me even a little and hopefully let me leave is if he thinks I trust him. In that respect, I won't tell him the whole truth. I hope that my lying skills have stayed relatively polished, because it'll be bad news if he suspects something.

"W-Well, I came here in the first place because I'm searching for my brother," I decide to answer. "He disappeared when we were very young and I can sense that he's still alive somewhere in the city. That's, um, why I can't really stay here. I need to keep looking for him."

"I understand, but you must see that all psychics in this city are under my protection as soon as they step into the building. I can't just allow you to leave so soon. The world is dangerous for people like us."

There's deception in his underlying tone, and I think I'm the only one to hear it. Divine definitely wants me to stay, but not for honest reasons. "I've survived just fine for the past seventeen years," I tell him stiffly. "I'll be all right."

"Still, you don't have to go out there alone," Aki suggests. "Divine could go with you..."

Note to self: psychics do not take no for an answer—I guess that means I really am psychic.

"I don't really have enough room on the back of my duel runner for another person. I'll be just fine," I insist. "And when I get the time, I'll come back and visit. I just need to find my brother—I've been living in the dark about him for at least seven years."

"Tell me about your brother, Silvan," Divine says suddenly.

I open my mouth to ask why, and stop myself upon realizing that questioning him will cause a lapse in trust. If he doesn't think I trust him, he may not let me go. "My memory of him is very dim. He's my twin, so I think that he must look like me. I remember him being very quiet and thoughtful.—he's also older than me by a few seconds."

"And his name?"

"Evan," I say automatically. I used to repeat it to myself a hundred times under my breath when I was a child for fear of forgetting it. "Evan Zachary Levine. He just disappeared one day and no one knew where he went or if he was alive. I know he is, though, and I'm going to find him."

"Is there nothing I can say to make you stay?" Divine asks smoothly. He seems very calm about my leaving, different from how rushed he seemed in my staying. I wonder what he's pulling on me.

"Not at the moment," I answer firmly.

Divine sighs almost melodramatically. "All right, you may go. Kawasaki most likely has your duel runner outside. Our movement is open to you at all times."

"Thanks," I tell him. "I'll remember that."

Aki stares at me, eyebrows narrowed, but I can't figure out if she's angry at me for going or just deep in thought. I turn and head back to the door; my hand is on the knob when the literally mind-blowing sensation shoots through me and the green light is lapping at the edges of my eyes. The pain isn't as bad as it was last night, but I still feel tender from how terrible that feeling was.

The vision begins in Martha's front yard beneath the oak tree planted steps away from the front door; I see myself at a young age, when I was a very pale little girl with loose hair and weak shaking hands. I'm holding a book I recognize, a fat text with thick binding explaining pretty much all there is to know about quantum physics.

So I was a science nerd as a child, sue me for having a mechanical scientist for a father and a brain surgeon for a mother.

It's shady under the tree, and I see Yusei napping in the grass alongside Jack and Crow a little to my left. I walk closer to hear myself conversing with a boy next to me, someone who has my face and light hair; his fingers pick blades of grass apart as he talks.

"I don't understand how you can pay attention, reading that."

"Martha told me that it was Dad's," my childhood self tells him. "Aren't you curious about what he was like?"

"I guess," the boy answers. "Dad must've had a lot of patience."

"He must've been really smart," I say.

"Probably."

I watch myself flipping the book's pages, until I suddenly drop it and the space under the tree is taken over by a bright green light. I'm clutching the glowing mark on my arm, curled into a ball under the tree; my eyes are glowing green, and the sight frightens me. Is this what I look like when I go into a vision? If so, I understand why Aki screamed.

The vision pulses, and the guys wake up and run to my aid as my sight fades away and I see the real world again. My pause in movement has let a person on the other side of the door crack it open and stare into the room. "Divine? You called for me?"

The boy is my same age with his pale blonde hair cut short and his eyes the same silver-blue as mine.

I step back to let him into the room and when our eyes meet, all we do is stare.

* * *

**Guess who? There are a lot of visions in this chapter, mostly for a little bit of backstory on Silvan. The one with her father and Yusei's parents was kind of for that purpose (I know Yusei's mom is never named beyond "Mrs. Fudo," but I named her Eri because it sounded nice. Eri Fudo).**

**I'm hoping to get the next chapter up soon because finals are in two weeks and then I'm free~ Thank you for the people who have followed and reviewed, I'm glad you like it so far. **

**Thanks for reading! **

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	3. Backtrack

**Hello again~! Let's delve right into the next chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

It's an empty silence we stand in, just wandering in each other's eyes and trying to figure out who the other is and why they're here, standing before us.

His mind beats weakly, like a butterfly right out of its cocoon. I feel him reaching out to me. _Sil...van...?_

"We came across this young man, wandering the city when he was about ten years old," Divine tells me. "I believe he fits your description exactly."

This seems impossible. How could Divine have possibly conjured up my missing brother out of thin air? I'm temped to march up to him, grab his collar, and ask him what the hell he thinks he's pulling. This isn't real—it can't be.

I reach out, convinced my hand will fly right through him, and touch his face. He's tangible, real, and through the lie I've told and my excuse I grabbed for before I could think about, I'm glad to see him. More than glad; I'm relieved, excited, confused, elated, exhausted. Finding him was suddenly my second priority after I started thinking of helping my friends, but he's the last I have of my family and I've been needing him for a very long time.

"Oh my God I _hate_ you," I sniff, throwing my arms around him.

He stays there for a second, processing, and suddenly hugs me back with a laugh rumbling in his throat. "I missed you, too."

Our faces still look very alike (even though his jawline is prominent and very square-shaped while mine is soft and rounded, as well as my lips being a little fuller than his) with the same silver-blue eyes and pale blonde hair, but we've also grown bodily-wise. He's probably a foot taller than me now and built like a sports star, whereas I'm very small and thin with most of my strength in my shoulders and stomach. I think back to when we were identical in every way possible, and the only way people would know that I was a girl was if I grew my hair out or wore a skirt.

It's definitely my brother, he's definitely here hugging me, but I don't understand how he could possibly be here at the exact moment that I use him as an excuse to leave Arcadia.

"I knew you looked familiar," Aki realizes. "I thought I was just being paranoid."

There are so many questions I need to ask him, things that I need to know, but I crane my neck up to look at him and something in his eyes tells me to keep quiet for the time being.

"I-I guess I can stay now that I've found you," I say, following the direction his eyes give me. He isn't telling me to do anything through his thoughts, but I can feel what he wants me to do. "If you're living here, I can stay as long as you can."

"Wonderful!" Divine exclaims. "We're so _glad_ to have you!"

"Divine," Evan says, his voice flat, "I'm going to show Silvan around."

"So be it. I have something to discuss with Aki, anyways."

Evan gently takes my hand and exits the room—as soon as we're outside and the door is closed, he walks quickly towards the other end of the hallway.

"Hey, slow down," I complain. "Are you trying to get away from me, or something?"

"No," he remarks, "I'm glad to see you, really."

"You seem like you're mad at me."

"Not exclusively. It's just... We need to talk, and the walls have ears."

It's a cryptic comment and I jog after him as he gets the elevator open. We stay in silence until we come out of the building and Evan glances over his shoulder. "What are you doing here, Silvan?"

"Are you kidding? What are you doing here? Are you psychic, or something?"

"Not as much as you are. I could definitely sense you from Satellite."

I exhale. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Because it's the truth, Silvan. The way I knew you were safe was how far the feeling stretched. When you started coming closer, I was worried and this morning I got up with a sick headache because you were so close. Suddenly Divine summons me up and the feeling gets worse, there you are, and all my worst nightmares are coming true."

"Evan, what are you talking about?" I demand.

He looks around again, like he's afraid to be seen, and speaks again. "Seven years ago, this man from the city is walking around Satellite searching for a little orphan girl. He sees her and talks with her caretaker about adopting her and the caretaker turns him away because she doesn't trust him with the child. He gets angry and plans to take the girl in the middle of the night, when he comes across this boy who saw him talking to the caretaker. The boy tells the man that he'll go to the city with him as long as he leaves the little girl alone. So they go. Sound familiar?"

I shuffle the heel of my boot along a dandelion growing through the crack in the sidewalk. The stem snaps and I smash the bud into the concrete. "Here's the rest of your damn story. The girl wakes up the next day and sees that the boy is gone. She and the rest of her friends spend the entire day searching for him, crying out his name and by the time they've searched everything, everyone is telling her that he's dead. She grows up telling herself his name over and over because she's afraid she's going to forget it, then promises herself that he's alive and that she's going to find him when she's old enough. There's this cool thing called the truth, Evan, and this would be a _hell_ of a lot easier if you'd told me about it sooner."

He blinks at me. "You're not surprised at all?"

"I'm pissed off at you for disappearing just to protect me when you know I probably would've left Satellite anyways. But no, I'm not suprised. I came into the city last night and Divine bailed me out from the cops—he gives me a creepy, bad vibe and he's already made some really weird comments."

"Is that why you're here?"

"That's how I got here," I tell him. "It's a longer story than that."

"Divine's going to be in that room with Izayoi for a while," Evan remarks. "He typically is. We have nothing but time."

I walk alongside him and begin my story, right at the day where I remember him leaving. I tell him about my friends, hoping he remembers at least a little.

"I think so," he tells me. "Jack Atlas, I definitely know. He's the stuck up turbo duelist who flaunts his gaudy cards across town. I don't think I remember Crow other than his orange hair, and Yusei Fudo has completely slipped my mind."

"You guys were better friends than I am with him," I say, surprised. "He's a little shorter than you, dark hair, blue eyes?"

"I'll have to refresh my memory. I'm not getting a mental image."

I exhale sharply and continue telling him the story, about how we met Kalin Kessler and began Team Satisfaction, spending almost a whole year trying to liberate Satellite of beatniks and burglars and any other evil we thought roamed the streets. I explain our fallout, how Kalin flew off of the deep end and landed himself in the Detention Center—how the rest of us broke up and only I stayed with Yusei to finish our duel runner. I include my plan to search for him, as well as Jack's betrayal and Yusei asking me to stay behind and away from danger.

"You should've listened to him," Evan grumbles.

"Let me finish," I demand. "Sometime yesterday, a bunch of big guys in suits came down into the subway and dragged everyone else away in blindfolds. The last thing they told me was that Yusei needed help, but it wasn't specified why and how. So I came across the Pipeline last night and had a short run-in with Sector Security before Divine stepped in and bailed my ass."

"And you felt a bad vibe from him? Why didn't you leave when you did?"

"Oh, come on, I'm in a city I've never been in at midnight with cops crawling around—I think I'd rather pretend to like a creepy psychic than spend the night in a jail cell with a mark carved into my face. That's typical common sense."

"Even so, you could've left earlier this morning."

"I didn't really have a choice," I groan. "Last night, I had the worst vision I've ever had in my life!"

Evan cocks his head to the side. "You're still having those?"

"Of course I'm still having them! I've expected that I've gotten used to them by now, but last night it felt like my flesh was melting off of my body and my brain was trying to rip its way out of my skull."

"Thanks for the description," he replies, looking disgusted.

"You're welcome," I say curtly. "I can't be entirely sure, but I think it was triggered by Aki."

"I wouldn't doubt it. She has this odd sigil on her right arm, a red carving in the shape of a reptile's claw. Divine also has a weird way he goes about things when he's around her. He continually tells her that she isn't alone, she doesn't have to think, that he's the only one she can trust because he's the only one to understand her, and everyone else in the Movement just unquestioningly plays along."

"So that's that crap she's been spewing about acceptance," I muse. "She's mentioned it to me a few times."

"I could've predicted that," Evan says. "Divine has never taken any exclusive interest in anyone besides Izayoi. Not until now, at least. I can see him treating you a lot like how he treats her, which probably makes her associate you with familiarity. It makes Izayoi think that you're very similar, if not the same, people. He wants her to trust you, though I don't understand why yet. I've spent seven years here, and I've seen how manipulative Divine can be. You're the only reason he's been so civil with me up until now, because I think he knew you'd come eventually."

"Wait wait, back up," I demand. "Last night, Divine mentioned that. When he first met me, he said that he could sense me and that he'd been sensing me since I was small. That proves your story about how you got here, but he also told me that 'I'd come at last.' Any idea what that means?"

"Unfortunately so." Evan's jawline sets in a tight, strong position. "Remember that worst nightmare I mentioned coming true? Well, I think it's always been inevitable and it's sort of the reason that he took my deal all those years ago instead of taking you straight out of bed like he was planning. With me on his side, you'd have a reason to stay and he'd have the perfect tool to get you to do what he wanted."

"You were the bait," I say, my heart sinking.

"Yep. And I've served my purpose far too well."

"This really isn't good. I came here to help my friends and bring you home with me, not get caught up in some psychic's plan for world domination." I pause for a moment. "That isn't what he's planning, is it?"

"Close. Very, very close. He's starting small with the city."

"Oh boy," I sigh. "I've dug myself into quite the hole."

"We both have," he tells me halfheartedly. He sighs as we continue to walk through the outside maze of hedges. "So, tell me about your powers."

"Like I mentioned, the visions are constant. My mark glows whenever it happens and I'm pretty sure my eyes do too."

"Can I see it?"

I roll up my sleeve and he sees the mark, cocking his head to the side. "A Trinity?"

"Is that what it's called?" I ask. The revelation that my brother may know more about my mark makes my heart race in excitement.

"Yeah, but I don't understand why you have it as a marking. It's mostly featured in Catholic texts and Celtic ritual carvings."

"Why do you know that?" I mumble.

"There isn't much to do in seven years besides read books, especially when you're trapped in the same building every day."

"Divine kept you here?" I inquire, half-horrified and half amused since I remember Evan never having the patience to read a book.

"Yeah, he didn't want me to run, but that isn't important right now. How long have you had it?"

"I started having visions when we were seven," I tell him, "but the mark materialized a few days after you left."

"Interesting. It's what makes you have visions?"

"Yeah. They're only ever of the past, though. They're always triggered at random moments and are tied to places and people who are there at the time."

"Hm. What else does it do?"

"W-Well," I stutter, "I uh... I tend to, erm... Read, uh... Read people's, uh... Read their minds."

His face changes to something along the lines of being amused. "Why was that so difficult to say?"

"You're the second person I've ever told," I tell him sheepishly, feeling my cheeks grow warm. "The only other person who knows is Yusei."

"I could've guessed that."

"I feel like people would get mad at me for breaching their privacy, but I can't control it. I can't block people out, I can't stop myself from listening."

"No problem," he says nonchalantly. "I personally have nothing to hide, but I'd _kill_ to know what Divine is thinking."

"Me too," I reply, and when he stares at me in confusion, I continue. "Divine has this weird thing about his thoughts—whenever I try to hear him, it sounds all messed up and muffled. I can't understand anything, and it's like he's purposefully blocking me out."

"Isn't that odd," Evan muses.

"Very. Am I still wet?"

"Damp," he replies, eyes skimming over me. "Why?"

"That's a recent effect of the mark. I keep waking up soaking wet and I don't know why."

"Well then. You have been through some interesting things, have you?"

"You have _no_ idea. So, tell me about your abilities."

"I can't do much," he tells me. "I can materialize duel monsters like the rest of the psychics here, but the most I can do is empathize."

"Empathize?"

"Sense the way people feel. Change how they feel. If I feel that someone is troubled, I can change them and make them relaxed."

"_Whoa_. That's _really_ cool."

"I'm about as strong as every other psychic here except Izayoi, Divine, and you, of course. I'm really not all that special."

"That's a lie. What you can do is really special—I've never heard of it before."

"That's nice of you, Sil, but I don't have much worth here. You and Izayoi are the stars because you're crazy powerful. You're the ones who can stand up to Divine's high standards and even remotely achieve what he wants."

"I dunno about Aki, but there is no way I'm attempting city-wide domination. I'm five foot three and a half, 110-lbs, and a newborn child could probably stop me."

"You don't realize how strong you are," Evan says distastefully. "That's not a good sign. That means Divine could exploit your abilities in a bunch of different ways. He does the same with Izayoi. I really wish you could feel how powerful you are..."

"I'm not like you. I can't sense how strong other people are."

"Every psychic can. I think your power measure is when you read people's thoughts—you can't read Divine or Izayoi, which must mean you know they're powerful."

"I don't know, maybe." I pause. "What does it feel like, when you feel people's power?"

"Very strange," Evan answers after a while. "There's a pulsing from every person, like their heartbeat. When someone is psychic, it sort of makes my hair stand on end like their heartbeat has an electric current tagged to it. For Izayoi, it's sort of like the electricity is sparking a fire. When she uses her power, the fire ignites and everything feels hot. Divine's is just this weird presence that beats like a bass drum. The beating just gets faster and louder when he uses his power. Yours is different—when you're farther away, I can feel this thing in the back of my mind that just flutters and when you get closer that thing grows bigger and bigger until it feels like there's a big rock in my brain."

"I'm learning a lot today," I say quietly.

"It's too bad we can't go out into the city," Evan comments. "The weather is fantastic right now."

"It does feel really nice," I reply, glancing up to the cloudless sky. "It'd be so nice to take a ride."

"A ride on what?" He asks.

"_Oh_!" I exclaim. "My duel runner! You have to see it!"

"You have a duel runner?" Evan asks, puzzled. "I guess that explains your getup. I've never seen anyone wear so much leather."

"Road rage does exist, my friend, and leather is the one thing that can combat it."

Evan laughs good-naturedly. "The course is over here. It's where they keep all of the duel runners used for turbo duel training."

We turn down a different pathway where the hedges fall away into a brick walkway and an asphalt track.

"They train people to turbo duel?"

"Yep."

"That's weird."

"Only to you," Evan answers. "You probably taught yourself."

"I learned with Yusei," I say.

"You do a lot of things with him, don't you?" Evan comments.

"Yeah, kind of."

"Mmhm." He doesn't say anything else, and his thoughts remain blank.

We approach the track in a self-imposed silence, where there's a man waiting in the same strange robes Divine's assistant had been wearing. The man is examining my duel runner, walking around it but not touching it.

"Man, this is a bomb duel runner!" The man exclaims. "It's so well put together!"

"Thanks," I say. "I made it myself."

He straightens up. "You made this baby?"

"Yep."

"Whoa, man, that's talent! I'm Kawasaki, I'm the duel runner instructor! You must be the new blood Divine mentioned!"

_New blood_. The title makes me shiver. "Y-Yeah, I guess so."

Kawasaki looks between us. "Whoa. I'm seeing double."

"Silvan is my sister," Evan tells him. "Twin, actually."

"That explains a lot." Kawasaki points at my duel runner. "I'd kill to see how this thing runs—ride for me?"

"That's actually kind of what I came here for," I laugh. I pick my helmet up off of the seat and gather my blonde hair against my head before I slide it on. Riding with my hair out of the helmet tangles it up, which I hate.

I can feel Evan's eyes on me as I roll out onto the track, planting my feet on the asphalt before hitting the accelerator. The track is flat and smooth—it feels like I'm flying. For a moment, it's like Divine and his plan to keep me here don't exist. My mark doesn't exist, and neither do the weird things it causes. The disappearance of my friends never happened, and I've gone back three years into the past when everything was still good. I want to sing, I'm so happy.

I come around for a second lap and Evan is standing on the lower bar of the gate, his torso arched over the top as he watches me drive past him.

_Wow_. The word rings around in my mind, deliberately thought in my direction. _You're good at that, aren't you?_

I let a laugh out, and it rings in the air around me. I swing a second turn and come around full until I stop beside the gate where Evan stands.

"How was that?" I say, pulling off my helmet. I shake my hair out and it tumbles down my back.

"Jesus Christ, Speed Racer," Evan remarks, "how much free time do you have?"

"I used to have a hell of a lot," I tell him. "It took me a long time to build this—I built it at the same time Yusei was building his second one, so we helped each other."

"I really want to meet this Yusei you keep mentioning, but I doubt I'll ever get the chance," Evan mumbles under his breath as Kawasaki comes running towards us.

"Man, that was so wicked! You're one of the best riders I've ever seen! Maybe even better than Jack Atlas!"

I scoff, and Kawasaki stares at me questioningly. "Thanks," I cough. "Do you ride, Evan?"

"No," he laughs. "I'm not that coordinated."

"That's ridiculous, you're my brother. You're coordinated as fuck."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Exceptionally good." I turn to Kawasaki. "Divine said that you would keep my duel runner somewhere when I wasn't using it...?"

"Totally! I keep all the training runners here, but I can squeeze yours in too! It's a hell of a piece of machinery, so I may have to find it its own space."

"Thanks for doing this, Kawasaki."

"Hey, it's no prob! Gorgeous bike like this deserves some great treatment."

"Divine is done talking to Izayoi," Evan whispers. "I can feel her coming closer."

"What do you want me to do?" I ask.

"Come on," he says.

Kawasaki is too busy with my duel runner to notice Evan and me leaving towards the Arcadia building again, so I don't feel so bad about sneaking away.

"We need to come up with a plan," Evan says once we're far enough away. "Something to let us get away from here."

"Yeah," I sigh. "I agree that Divine probably doesn't have the greatest agenda, but what exactly do you suggest we do?"

"I'm not sure yet. One thing's for sure, I'm definitely not leaving. Divine won't let me because I'll be the only thing keeping you here. He knows he can't manipulate you to stay and you're too strong to keep here by force. As long as I'm here, you should be free to go where you want because Divine knows you'll keep coming back."

"You're probably right," I tell him. "I think I have something we can do."

"Do tell," Evan remarks.

"We stay here for a while, and I dive into all the things Divine wants me to do, get him to trust me and think that I'm easy to manipulate so that he'll let his plans slip bit by bit."

"That's good to get information, but how do we get out when the time comes?"

"You said that I could probably go anywhere as long as you're here, right?" I ask. "In my spare time, I'll go looking for Yusei. I'd bet my duel runner that he could come up with a fool-proof escape plan."

"Okay... Do you have a plan B in case your theory falls out?"

"Book it in the middle of the night?" I suggest.

"What if Divine catches us?"

"I can hope that I have a handle on my abilities by then," I say. "If not, I hope we run faster than he does."

"It's been seven years," Evan states, "I barely remembered your face before today, and yet you haven't changed at all."

I see Aki making her way across the grounds towards us, fiddling with a thick envelope in her hands.

"What do you have there?" I say once she's close enough.

"An invitation to the Fortune Cup," Aki answers distastefully.

"The Fortune Cup?"

"It's a dueling tournament," she answers. "They want me to compete and Divine says that I should go."

"You don't want to," I say flatly.

"Not really. People always say rude things to me when I go out in public."

"Does it matter? They don't know you, what do they mean?"

She exhales. "Divine says that everyone needs to know not to mess with me or any other psychic, but I feel like a dueling tournament is a waste of my time. The prize is the title of King or Queen of Duels and a duel against Jack Atlas, but I don't really want to duel him."

"No one does," I retort. "The guy's a raging douchenozzle with barely any respect for anything else besides himself."

"I've never met him," Aki remarks, "so I wouldn't know."

"Why are you competing if you don't want to?" I ask.

"Divine's asked me to," she answers simply, and I don't ask for any further explanation.

What comes out of my mouth next is something I didn't really plan. "Do you mind if I tag along?"

Aki blinks at me. "_Really_?"

"Sure! I've never seen a dueling tournament before, I think it'd be fun to go."

"I'll stay here," Evan adds. "I'm not super into dueling as a sport."

"It's always just been me and Divine doing things," Aki muses. "I've never had anyone else ask to come, too."

Evan sticks his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. I can sense him reaching out, reading Aki the way that I can't.

"First time for everything, right?" I encourage. "And besides, Divine says we're super similar. It'll be no different than your other trips with him."

She cocks her head to the side, like she's reading into something. "Okay. Sounds like a plan—I'll tell Divine. I think my first match is tomorrow afternoon."

"While you're at it, do you think we could figure out what my waking up wet issue entails?"

"Why don't you come with me? We can ask him together."

"Sure," I tell her enthusiastically.

Evan leans down to whisper in my ear. "She's taken a liking to you."

"Good," I mumble back. "I want to take her with us."

Evan doesn't reply, but he does follow in silence when I run ahead to walk alongside Aki and engage in any conversation I can with her.

I don't know what I expected when I found my brother again, but hopefully I can look back someday, laugh, and agree that this definitely wasn't it.

* * *

**A bit shorter than the last couple—hope you don't mind. This chapter is really conversation-oriented, kind of going and developing the basis of what Silvan's goal will be for this arc of the story. I also wanted her to catch up with her brother and develop his personality a little since it's obviously escalating kind of quickly. From here on out, the story will hopefully build up nicely into the Dark Signers arc, which I hope you'll all enjoy. I honestly am liking this draft much better than my first one.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	4. Chameleon

**Heeeello! Finals are approaching and I'm kind of using fanfiction as an outlet for all my stress. Please enjoy this next chapter~**

* * *

"I'm going somewhere," Aki tells me once we've talked to Divine. He's promised to find the root of my wet problem somehow, which I don't understand but I pretend to trust. "Would you like to join me?"

"Sure," I tell her. I've promised myself that I'm going to become Aki's friend, get her to trust me more than she trusts Divine. That's going to take a lot, but I've been through a lot of crazy things in the past couple days and I'm not sure if it can get any wilder. "Where are we going?"

"The Daimon Area," she replies. "It's the rougher area of Neo Domino City, and there's an arena for dueling there."

"Are we going to duel?" I ask.

"Yes, to an extent. Divine says that after a while of not using them, my power builds up and becomes a little unstable. I need to release it sometimes just to set it back to a containable level."

"I see," I say, letting the information sink in. "Aki, does releasing your power through duels hurt people?"

"Sometimes," she replies loosely. "But Divine says that it's a small price to pay."

It's a horrible thing to say, but it's more of Divine's influence that I need to cut out of her heart. I think it's good that she's told me so that I know just what he tells her and how to combat it.

"Why don't you release it here?"

"It's dangerous to the infrastructure of the Movement building. Daimon's a bit more open."

I stand against the wall, the door of Aki's room separating us as we converse. "Why are you changing again?"

"I'm not allowed to reveal my identity outside of the Movement. The duelists in Daimon refer to me as the Black Rose Witch."

"Interesting title."

"I actually kind of like it. I think that it suits me."

"As long as it doesn't bother you," I tell her.

"Do you have something to change into, Silvan?" Aki asks, her voice muffled.

"I have my riding suit," I suggest. "It's all black—"

"That's fine. I can lend you a cloak, too."

"Okay, then. I'll be right back." I go down the elevator at the end of the hall and out of the building. Evan is standing at the door with his hands in his pockets.

"I'm going with Aki to Daimon," I tell him, walking off through the hedges towards the track where Kawasaki has my duel runner.

"Oh boy," he remarks. "The Black Rose Witch is a ghost story they tell around Daimon and crowds of people always come hoping to see her. A bunch of bystanders always get hurt when she does show."

"She told me about releasing her powers," I reply. "I'll be careful."

"There's something else. Izayoi can be... Kind of a sadist."

"_There's something else_ I'll have to try and break her of," I grumble.

"This isn't going to be as easy as you think," Evan tells me. "All of her habits have become her personality, thanks to Divine. You can't change her unless she wants you to."

"Then I'll convince her to want me to. I'm good at suggestion."

"So you say," he huffs.

I retrieve my riding suit from where it lives, in the compartment in my duel runner that my tools also find homage in.

"More leather?" Evan complains. "Come on, Sil, tell me you at least own something made of cotton."

"The closest thing I have to that are my jeans. Leather is literally the cheapest thing sold in Satellite. Give me a break."

Evan goes back into the Arcadia building with me and waits outside my door while I change. I'm fixing the collar when I hear Aki outside. "Is Silvan in there?"

"Yeah, she's changing," Evan answers.

I can feel the air charge around them, tension building and silence widening the space. It's so... Awkward.

I pull the door open and they both jump, startled by my sudden entrance into the nonexistent conversation.

Aki's wearing a red dress muted with tones of gray and other dark colors. She pulls at the hood of her cloak and looks up. "Here." She slips one that looks identical to hers around the collar of my suit and secures it. "We're ready to go now, I think."

"I'll see you later, Evan," I tell him firmly, following Aki back out of the building.

"I still can't believe that you're siblings," Aki remarks. "He was here when Divine took me in, and I've known him for kind of a long time after that."

"It's amazing how small the world is," I reply.

"Yeah."

Aki lets me stop at my duel runner to get my duel disk, a silver factory disk with a blue jewel set in it.

"Do you want to ride there?" I ask.

"O-Oh, n-no thank you. Duel runners make me a little uncomfortable."

"Okay. We can walk."

When we exit the grounds, Aki puts on a strange-looking white mask and pulls her silver hairpin out of her bangs.

"What is that?" I ask.

"It restricts my powers," she replies, the mask muffling her voice. "It's so I don't lose control of them."

"You lose control?"

"Yeah... I'm trying to learn to keep a handle on them, but Divine says it comes with age."

That's definitely a load of bullshit, but I don't complain. Aki pulls her hood up, and I do the same. I follow her into an alleyway, trusting that she knows where she's going and we won't run into anything bad.

I don't know what we'll encounter in Daimon, but I'm bracing myself for everything. People are going to get hurt, and I can feel it. I'm worried because there's nothing I can do about it, if I want Aki to trust me. Divine has told her to let loose and stopping that would make me into one of those people trying to stop her. I don't think that would end well.

I've never dealt with people like Aki before—it's a new experience for me. Hopefully I can learn along the way and teach myself how to better deal with situations like these.

"We're nearly there," she says over her shoulder.

"All right."

"And erm... Would it be all right if we split up when we get there?" Aki sounds a little on the uncomfortable side. "I wouldn't want you to get caught in the crosshairs."

Interesting. She must have developed some form of liking to me if she doesn't want me to get hurt. That, or I'm totally misreading the situation. I tend to do that sometimes.

Aki stops in her tracks after we cross into another alley. "This is where we part ways for now. The arena is just beyond this building. I suppose we can meet here once everything is over with."

"Sounds like a plan. Be careful." The phrase could mean a lot of different things, especially given our situation, but she seems to take it exactly like I wanted her to.

"Thank you. You too." Aki fades into the shadows in the next alley and I step out from behind the building. A dueling field has been drawn out in the dirt courtyard formed between a square of multiple buildings. Small crowds of people have gathered for duels, which does remind me of Satellite. I wonder if Yusei would ever come out to a place like this.

At this point, I don't really see why I need the hood. Maybe Aki needs to conceal her identity, but I don't. I pull it down and walk towards the throng of duelists, the hem of the cloak dragging a little in the dust.

"Hey! Blondie!"

A voice echoes over the space and I turn to see a boy not yet my age coming across the dirt to me. Maybe he's fifteen or sixteen, but definitely one of those stuck-up types—the way he carries himself reminds me pointedly of the Jack Atlas I no longer know, the one who flaunts his stolen duel runner around and calls himself a royal.

Living in Satellite has taught me to be rough and unforgiving. That's the face I assume now. "Can I help you, kid?"

"What's a pretty lady doing in a place like this? Do you want me to walk you home, _sweetheart_?" A couple of other boys that seem to be following this one around like a couple of first-years on their senpai let out some raucous laughter.

"No thanks. Besides I think, I hear your mommies calling you home. Now beat it."

"Not before I run you into the ground with my kickass deck!"

"I don't think you want to duel me," I retort. "My monsters might give you nightmares."

"Put your cards where your mouth is!"

"If you insist," I say. The last time I street dueled was probably before Jack left. It's been a while and I know I'm rusty, but I can also sense the boy's rising and falling thoughts, as well as just how uneasy he is about taking cards out against me. I know I can win.

"The first move is mine. I summon Machina Peacekeeper in Defense mode." The card opens up in a wash of blue light, then pulls back to reveal a little red robot with wheels for its feet. It's luck that I drew it in my first hand, and I'm glad. It's part of an age-old trick I've been using since I started running a Machine deck. "Next, I activate the continuous spell card, Wave-Motion Cannon. For every standby phase that passes the next time I activate this card, you take damage x1000. I'll end my turn with a face down card."

The boy draws, looks at his hand, and swallows uneasily. "I activate the spell card, Allure of Darkness! Thanks to this card, by discarding one Dark-type monster from my hand, I can draw two more!" He draws two cards, and the frightened expression turns to one of triumph. "I summon Armageddon Knight in Attack mode! Armageddon Knight, attack Machina Peacekeeper!"

Lights flash. The card, which looks like a metal-plated samurai with a pirate's cutlass, destroys the little robot I'd had on the field and sends shards of light everywhere. It's much stronger than my card, having 1400 attack points while Peacekeeper has only 300 defense points. I don't really mind, because he's triggered my favorite card combo.

"I activate Machina Peacekeeper's special ability. When this card is destroyed by battle, I can add one Union monster from my deck to my hand. The card I choose is Machina Gearframe." The card comes out of a slot in my duel disk—I place it in my hand and patiently wait for the boy to end his turn.

He doesn't seem fazed by it. "I place one card face down and end my turn!"

I draw a card. "I summon Machina Gearframe in Attack mode." It doesn't look unlike Machina Peacekeeper, except for the fact that it's orange and stands on two legs rather than three. "Thanks to his special ability, I can add one Machine-type monster from my deck to my hand. I'll choose Machina Fortress." My luck is good today, and I'm happy about that. "Thanks to this card's special ability, I can discard Machine-type monsters in my hand with the level equal or above 8 in order to bring it to the field."

A lot of people dueling off to the side stop what they're doing to watch me summon the monster—it looks like a tank, guns jutting out from the blue and red coverings on the metal body and heavy chain covering the treads. It's also a lot bigger than half of the monsters currently being summoned in other duels across the dirt plain, which definitely causes attention to come to it. Pride swells in my stomach.

"Machina Gearframe has the power to destroy Armageddon Knight—so I'll let it do just that." Gearframe, with 1800 attack points, overpowers the boy's card by 400—his knight disappears in a puff of yellow shards while he takes the difference in damage. "Machina Fortress, attack him directly."

Evan mentioned that psychics can typically inflict real battle damage during duels, but I've never been able to do that. I'm not worried about doing it now, because I don't feel real physical pain in him as he takes the 2500 points in damage and his life points fall to 1100. He does let loose some nasty cuss words somewhere in his thoughts, though. I'm holding back laughter as I end with a face down.

The boy draws. "I activate my face down trap card Graceful Revival! Thanks to this card, Armageddon Knight is coming back for another round!" The monster reappears in a shroud of blue light, then disappears again in a circle of twisting multicolored hues. "Now, I tribute Armageddon Knight to summon Caius, The Shadow Monarch!" It's a much bigger monster than Machina Fortress built in colors of black and violet with armor and the crown of a king, but I have a secondary plan that I know will hold up.

"Thanks to this card's affect, I can banish one monster on your field to the Graveyard! I choose Machina Fortress!" My card goes to the Graveyard, along with a good chunk of my pride. "Now, Caius the Shadow Monarch, attack Machina Gearframe!"

I wince despite 600 points not being too much to bear.

Having used his only face down, I don't think he has any other tricks to pull out of thin air. He looks so freaking confident, and it's funny, because I know I can throw my secondary strategy to the wind and defeat him with the card he's forgotten I've activated. "I reactivate my continuous spell card, Wave-Motion Cannon. This card has been on my field for two standby phases, allowing me to deal you 2000 points in damage and properly tell you to _get lost_."

The horror on his face as he realizes what's just happened is almost comical, so much so that I put a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing when the duel officially ends.

The lights come down from the card's effects, and I find the boy clawing at the dust. "Dammit dammit dammit dammit _dammit_!"

"Want me to walk you home?" I retort, and he glares at me from where he's slumped on the ground. The boy's groupies seem to have disappeared.

"Good duel," he grumbles despite sounding grossly disappointed.

"It was. Work on paying attention next time." The boy pulls himself up off of the ground and blows dust off of the goggles hanging around his neck. "Now, in all seriousness, get out of here."

"Why?"

"Do you _want_ to die?"

He shakes his head mechanically.

"Good, now move it or lose it." To my surprise, he actually listens and books it in the other direction. I watch him go until his thoughts have vanished from my hearing distance.

I wonder where Aki is—nothing has happened, and I've even gotten through a duel with a slightly mediocre duelist. It makes me hope that no one will get hurt today, but I don't think I should hope anything until something has actually happened.

"Silvan?"

My head snaps up, and I turn for a couple reasons. Firstly, because someone recognizes me, and secondly because I know that voice—I know it better than my own.

When I turn, the first thing I see are blue eyes because I know how tall he is and I know how far up to look so that I'm looking him in the eye. Dark eyebrows narrow, concern blows over, and he speeds up his steps. I feel like everything is starting to slow down, though, and not a second later I'm hit with the same piercing fire I felt last night.

We fall at the same time, green light nipping at my irises and threatening to make me rip the muscles and tendons and skin off of my arm. We aren't three feet away from each other and here we are dying under what appears to be the same pain.

My vision, tinted green, sees people rushing to Yusei's aid and, though I'm worried about him too, the one thing on my mind is Aki. My unmarked and shaking hand struggles to pull the hood of the cloak over my head and the ground starts to move under me. Dust and dirt fly everywhere as long arms of thorns split the earth apart and make the pain in my blood so much worse than it was four seconds ago.

"_Silvan_!" Yusei's voice is much closer now, but when he touches my shoulder the agony is so great that I cry out. He pulls his hand away and clenches it in the dirt. "You're okay, you're going to be fine, all right?"

He's trying to sound calm, and I know it, but he sounds irrationally enraged. I don't know why and I want to laugh at him, but breathing also hurts. I'm trembling at the same rate of the quakes, people are screaming and running away and I'm struggling not to fall unconscious. Darkness is calling my name and sleep sounds so good, but I can't fall under because there's no telling what will happen.

Voices in the background are muffled. Yusei is saying something that I can't hear, and I suddenly feel his presence leave. I want him to come back—now I feel alone as well as blind. I heave myself onto my elbows and reach out for anyone within holding distance.

A hand grabs mine, but it isn't Yusei's. Aki's voice drifts in the back of my mind. I hear myself say, "I'm okay—I'll be all right."

The world is still green and it spins around me, making me want to fall into oblivion. Everything speeds up suddenly and my head becomes some empty weight on a shoulder that isn't mine, where a voice shouts my name somewhere far behind me, and the headache still pounds fissures into my skull.

Something smooth and flat touches the back of my head. The feeling gets progressively less intense until I can see again and the mark has cooled to a dull pulsing. My entire body is numb, and I'm blinking away the shifting lights in my eyes until I realize that I'm sitting against the wall in an alley—Aki is standing against the opposite wall, biting the nail off of her thumb from discomfort. "Silvan, are you all right?"

"Yeah," I say, clearing my throat. "W-What happened?"

"My mark must've triggered yours... I didn't think it would start glowing. I don't even know who that guy was..."

"What guy?" I ask, rubbing the corners of my eyes exasperatedly.

"There was a guy there with a mark that was similar to mine." Aki's face twists into displeasure. "He got really close to you and wouldn't go away."

Yusei—she's talking about Yusei. But since when did he have Aki's mark? In my vision of her, she acquired hers as a child. I got mine as a child. I've never seen any marks on Yusei; I don't understand.

"That must be what triggered it," I say, pulling myself off of the ground. Aki takes a step closer to help me. "Having two of you there at the same time made it worse. I thought I was going to burst into flames."

"I'm sorry, this was a bad idea..."

"It was just unlucky," I insist. "Trust me, I'm all right."

"...if you insist. Can you walk on your own?"

"I think so." I take a few steps, making sure that I can feel my feet touching the ground. "Let's go back to Arcadia. I need to lay down."

Aki leads me the quickest way she knows how back to Arcadia. Evan mentioned that she was sadistic, but she seems very kind to me. I don't know if it's because Divine told her that we were alike and she should learn to like me, or if she genuinely cares about my well-being.

Evan also said that Aki's "taken a liking to me," which must mean something good. Maybe there is hope that I can reverse Divine's influence on her.

He notices me tripping over myself when we get back. "What happened?"

"Nothing too exciting," I assure him. "Just some glowing and plants. Very boring."

"Sounds like. Divine has been looking for you."

"Let's go see him," Aki suggests.

"All right," I say, trying not to sound exasperated. Too much shit has gone down today in so little time, including the discovering of my lost sibling as well as the split-second reuniting of me and my closest friend. I really don't want Divine's hidden agenda to add to that. I'm one girl, and just because I can read minds and see the past does not mean that I'm a superhero.

Upstairs in Divine's office, we find him and the woman in the odd robes from earlier staring at something on a computer screen.

"Ah, Silvan," he croons once he sees me, "we've been missing you."

"She tagged along with me to Daimon," Aki tells him.

"I see," Divine replies, displeasure dripping into his voice. "Did you enjoy your outing?"

"Somewhat," I answer. "What's the problem?"

"Actually, it's more like a resolution. We've found the answer to your water problem."

"_Really_?" I think I sound more excited than I wanted to, because one side of his mouth tips up into a smirk.

"Yes—this is my assistant, Seria, by the way. She was the one who took you to your room after you lost consciousness and checked on you a few times after that. According to her accounts, small droplets of condensation began appearing in the air about an hour after you'd gone down and gathered around you a few minutes before you woke. I've concluded that you have quite the unusual attraction to water, and the ability's discontinuation has caused it to work in your unconsciousness."

"Are you sure it isn't telekinesis?" Aki inquires. "Sometimes I wake up and things are floating, then they suddenly drop."

"Can't be," Divine tells her. "Telekinesis only moves objects around and stirs up the air around them. The ability Silvan possesses is purely elemental."

"Wait wait wait. Are you saying that the reason I keep waking up like I took a midnight swim is because I'm subconsciously pulling water from random places towards me and then just letting it go?"

"Materializing it out of the air, more like. The vapor levels in the atmosphere of your room apparently dropped considerably after you woke this morning."

"Holy hell," I mumble. "Am I going to wake up on fire next?"

"Only time will tell if water is the only element drawn to you. I wouldn't doubt there are other things hidden in the natural world that bend to the mark you bear."

The comment makes me think that he knows more about my mark than he lets on. "If you say so, Divine."

"Perhaps if you train the ability, you'll no longer wake up in the state that you do."

"Maybe," I say, air hissing through my teeth. "If you don't mind, Divine, I'd like to take a nap. Today's events have been a little stressing on my brain."

"Of course."

I leave the room without another word and head down a couple floors to my room. I run into Evan on the way there, who stares at me with a puzzled sort of expression. "Why are you mad?"

"I think Divine knows more about my mark than he's letting me believe," I answer exasperatedly. Before I can finish the sentence, an odd feeling of peace settles over me. I blink and catch his eye. "D-Did _you_ just do that?"

"What if I did? Don't be angry over something as stupid as that. I've been combing through the library in the basement and finding a few books on markings similar to yours. I'm slowly trying to put pieces together myself. Maybe Divine is only acting like he knows just to tick you off. Have you ever thought of that?"

I sigh. "No. You're right. I'll save my anger for when I really need it."

"Good. So, what really happened at Daimon?"

"I ran into Yusei," I say blankly. "But I didn't get the chance to talk to him. My mark started to burn when Aki's did, and according to her Yusei bears a mark similar to hers."

"Really? I'm curious about Izayoi's mark, too. Maybe I'll look into it."

"That'd be nice..." I pause, and reality finally starts to set in. "I've only been here a day and a half and it feels like I've been in this building for a lifetime. Nothing is going fast enough. I just want to be out of here and with my friends again..."

"Life isn't that easy, Sil. Remember to be patient."

"I'm trying," I groan. "It's hard..."

"Yeah, I know. You and Izayoi are going to the Fortune Cup tomorrow—there's no telling what you'll find there."

"That sort of freaks me out," I say. "Considering what happened today, there are a bunch of things that could randomly happen. I don't know what to expect anymore; it's not like I can see the future."

"Where's the fun in that?" Evan retorts. "Knowing what's coming? Don't you like to pick up and play along?"

"Only when I know what I want to accomplish. I thought that I did, but now I'm not so sure."

"So just go with it. What do you think I've been doing for the past seven years?"

"_Reading books_," I mumble. "I don't like being in the dark."

"So make yourself a flashlight. You're new at this, Silvan, everything isn't going to become clear all at once. Try looking for something to accomplish tomorrow, when you're at the Fortune Cup. Ask yourself what you want and think hard about how you want to get it."

"I'm taking a nap," I grumble, stalking down the hallway to the room designated as mine. Evan's sigh echoes after me.

I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a while, until I finally grow the incentive to change out of my riding suit and back into my normal clothing. I'm thinking about the incident at Daimon, wondering how Yusei could possibly have acquired a mark like Aki's and mine while wondering how he is at the same time. At least, now, I know where I could possibly find him. The question remains—how?

I hate that Evan is right—I need to figure out what I want and how I'm going to get it. The problem is that I've always known what I wanted; this is the first time I've been clueless about it.

I know that I want to go home, I want everything to go back to the way it was before my friends left and everything started spiraling downhill. I want to know about myself and why I can do all these strange things. I want to know what's going on in that demonic mind of Divine's, and what purpose he has for stealing my only living family member from me and creeping on my childhood self. I don't care, I just want some door to open and show me something worth looking at.

Suddenly the mark glows, but there's no burn. I don't know if I'm just numb from the searing I felt at Daimon or if there's just miraculously no burn to come along this time. I stare at it, waiting for a vision to capture me in its glowing jaws, but nothing happens.

"What are you doing?" I mumble, wishing it could answer me and tell me just what it's planning.

Then a drop of water falls on my nose. I wipe it away and look around to find where it's coming from, when the tips of my fingers begin to grow warm and glow the same green my mark takes on. And I see them. Dozens, hundreds of beads of moisture are condensing in the air above me, just suspended there for who knows how long. I touch one and it fizzles back into vapor from the heat at my fingertips. It's one thing that's been uncovered to me today, and I'm _so_ grateful for it.

There's a rapid knock at my door, and Evan bursts in with a thick book in his hands. "Silvan, I think I've found something."

"Yeah," I mumble, taking in the sight around me. "So have I."

* * *

**So, the mysteries about Silvan's mark will gradually be explained, but let's just say that mythology comes into play for a bit. As if Egyptians and Aztecs weren't enough. **

**The feedback on this story is beginning to make me happy, especially given how nice the reviews are. At the end of the day I feel like I've actually accomplished something. **

**Finals next week, then I'm freeeee for three months! YES!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	5. Inquiries

**Hello! Let's jump right into chapter 5. Enjoy! **

* * *

_Draíocht_.

The piece of paper I scribbled the word on burns in my back pocket, like just thinking about it has some distant effect on me.

"Are you all right, Silvan?" Aki waves her hand distantly in front of my eyes.

"O-Oh, yeah, I'm fine." I blink away my trance. "I'm just a little drowsy, that's all. I was up kind of late last night."

"Me too. I'm antsy about the tournament."

We're currently on the lowest floor of the Arcadia Movement building, waiting for Divine to show his face so that we can head to a stadium called the Memorial Circuit on the other end of downtown. The Fortune Cup begins today, as does a lot of my uneasiness.

Yesterday, Evan told me he picked through some of his books until he found a really old text in some dead language that had my mark on the spine. When he brought it to me, he found me playing with the water in the air. I fooled around with the ability for a long time before it suddenly snuffed out and fell like rain onto the two of us, which very simply explains why I wake up the way I do.

Doors were opened with the revelation of my ability, but another one was closed when we opened the book and I discovered that I could understand it like it was written in my native language. That's where the word came from, the one I had to write down in order to remember it. _Draíocht_.

I don't know why it stirred something within me, but it feels almost familiar to say it, to taste the syllables on my tongue.

Evan doesn't know what language it is, but he's promised to research it while Aki and I are at the Fortune Cup. I'm already itching to get back so he can tell me what he's found, and we haven't even left yet. It could be crucial to discovering what my mark is for.

When Divine finally does arrive in the main hall, I see him carrying strange metal circlets; sort of like thickly banded bracelets. "Silvan, these were recently crafted for you. They're made of the same metal as Aki's hairpin and should help you channel the force of your visions into something a bit more bearable."

Maybe it's just my distrust of Divine that makes me hesitate to take them from him, but I obey like I'm supposed to and clip the circlets onto my wrists. They're heavy and remind me loosely of handcuffs. "Thanks."

"It's truly no problem. It would be dangerous for you to submit to one of your premonitions during the Cup. Sector Security isn't quite so friendly to those in our Movement."

I take note of that. Every bit of information counts.

Divine leads us and two other men in Arcadia robes outside to a truck with a symbol I suppose is the Movement's. Aki climbs in before me, holding a hand out to help me into the vehicle. Divine loads in behind us and it's a few moments before the ground beneath us jerks and begins to move forward.

"Do you always travel this way?" I ask.

"Of course not," Divine laughs, "this is only for special occasions."

I wonder what "special occasions" he's talking about—I decide not to dwell on it because I probably don't want to know.

"Now, Aki," Divine says once we've sat down and the truck has gone into a comfortable driving speed, "today is the day you show yourself to this city. Make them see the real you, that you are not to be trifled with. It's the first big step our Movement is making to promote psychics, and I can think of no better representative of us than you. I know you will make us proud."

"Of course, Divine."

Aki's voice is relaxed, trusting, but I hear deception in Divine's speech. I don't know if I'm just hyper sensitive because I already distrust him, or if I'm not hearing things and Divine truly is the deceitful snake I think he is.

"Do you know who you'll be dueling, Aki?" I ask pleasantly.

"Not yet. We're supposed to be bracketed once the opening ceremonies begin. Then the preliminaries start."

"I see..."

"Both of you must be careful," Divine advises. "The guards will go with you where they can, but people outside of the Movement won't take so kindly to you. You must watch each other's backs."

"Of course, Divine."

"_Sure_," I say almost half-heartedly.

It isn't a long time to the Memorial Circuit, and the truck has stopped before I know it. The three of us sit there while the driver comes around and opens the door, letting Divine out and keeping the door open so that Aki and I can jump out after him.

The circuit looks the same as it does on TV, big and gaudy and totally fitting for Jack to prance around in.

The way Yusei and I learned to turbo duel was by catching frequencies and television signals and scrutinizing the matches that took place here. So, in a way, I feel like I'm visiting somewhere I've already been. It's a nice trip down memory lane despite the showiness of the place as a whole.

The Arcadia guards stand on both sides of us as we enter under the stadium and into a labyrinth of corridors that I expect are for the duelists and anyone else participating in an event here.

I notice that every participant stands up against the wall as we pass, seeming to shrink back under some unknown force of nature. I'm the only one to look back at them as our group goes on.

We come into what looks like a viewing room with a few of the competitors scattered around and staring at screens mounted on the walls.

"There aren't very many people competing," I note.

"The Fortune Cup is a highly exclusive event," Divine replies. "Aki was invited through a very selective process and delivered an invitation."

"Invitation only, huh? Sounds like some dumb rich people get together."

"In a sense."

The way Divine agrees with me is almost unsettling; he acknowledged it so easily.

"The opening ceremonies will begin shortly," Divine comments. "I'll take you to the wings, Aki."

"Good luck!" I say as Divine ushers her down the hallway and out of my sight, leaving me with the two Arcadia guards.

I cross my arms and exhale. "You guys aren't going to leave me alone, are you?"

"Security measures, Miss Levine. People here are hostile to psychics."

"Right. I'll remember that."

I stare at one of the screens mounted on the wall in the waiting room, eager to see when Aki will take the field and how she duels. I feel like I'll learn a lot more about her by seeing her duel. Seeing how a person fights shows more about them than seeing the way they make peace.

Suddenly a shock goes up my left arm; I jump. I stare at it, wondering if my mark will light up, when another blue tendril of electricity shoots up my arm. I don't understand the pain, why or how I'm being submitted to this, when my mark does something very odd. It's like it tries to glow, then goes out again and tries to glow a second time before going out.

It continues flickering for a long time, the shocks stopping but a stomach-churning ache moving slowly throughout my limbs. My mark continues to flicker until it suddenly sends a shower of green sparks everywhere, making me jump back and the Arcadia guards move in closer to me.

Sparks continue to shoot out and a more sickly green light begins to move up my arm, locking up my muscles and stifling my breath. It's a vision trying to get to me, but the cuffs are keeping it from doing anything.

I'm beginning to drift and see black spots in the corners of my eyes; it's planning on taking my consciousness down so it can transmit the vision as a dream, most likely. There really is no way to escape my visions.

I'd rather hunch over in pain for a few seconds than completely lose consciousness, though, so I tug relentlessly on the cuff of my left hand until it comes off in my fingers and the vision hits me like a literal truck.

I stumble, my vision glowing green, and fall into a bench. My fingers grab at the wooden boards and the Arcadia guards attempt to help me up.

"_Let me be_," I gasp, "I'm all right."

They begin to come away from me when the green clears into a picture, but it isn't where I am. The scene I see is during the night, on the track outside when the stadium is empty. Despite that, there's a turbo duel in progress between two duel runners that I know all too well, because I helped to build both.

I watch from a seat in the northern section of the stands as they swing a turn and Yusei pulls a synchro summon. It's Stardust Dragon, which tells me that he's gotten it back like he wanted.

Jack's Red Demons Dragon is already on the field, and it lets out a primal roar once Stardust has materialized next to it.

My mark suddenly flashes and burns with a hotter fire, sending me spiraling down onto my knees and out of the vision. I come out of it struggling for air, one of the Arcadia guards standing as close as he can without touching me and the other one watching as the screens on the wall go dark.

"Opening ceremonies are finished," the one nearest the screens says. "Are you all right, Miss Levine?"

"_Silvan_," I say, scandalized. "Just _Silvan_. And I'm fine."

The guard closest to me sheepishly offers a hand to help me up. I take it and touch my arm, which is still uncomfortably hot. "Excuse me for a moment—I think I need some fresh air."

The one who helped me up tries to follow, but the other holds him back. "Be careful, then."

I stumble out of the room and down one hallway, wondering which one we took to come in from outside. I clutch the arm of my jacket as I go, staring at my feet. The metal cuff almost burns in my hand, and I look at it for a long time before clipping it back onto my wrist in case I run into Divine. Then I tug my glove up higher on my hand so that it rests against the glove material rather than my skin.

People that I don't recognize begin to walk past me, which makes me think that I'm getting closer to the inside of the stadium, where people exit out into the arena.

Actually, I'm sort of hoping to run into Divine so that I can talk to him about the effects of the cuffs.

I end up almost tripping over this girl with her hair in ponytails. She looks up at me, seeming a little more than startled.

"Sorry," I mumble. "That was an accident..."

"It's o—I m-mean, I'm alright!" It's an odd jump her voice takes, almost two whole octaves.

"Are you a contestant?" I ask, fishing.

"Why, of course! My name is Ruka~!"

"Right," I laugh. "What's your real name?"

The kid exhales, dropping the facade. "Is it _that_ obvious?!"

"Almost painstakingly. I'm Silvan."

"My name's actually Rua," he whispers. "My twin sister Ruka was invited to participate and didn't want to, so I'm taking her place."

"Smart," I say. "I don't think I could ever switch places with my twin. He looks too much like a star football player and I look too much like a gymnast."

"You're not a participant, are you?" He asks. "You look _way_ too familiar."

"No, my friend was invited to duel today. I'm here to support her." I stare in confusion. "Why do I look familiar? I don't think we've ever met before."

He's about to answer, when he spots someone or something behind me and shouts, "Yusei!"

"What?" I say, and turn around. Sure enough, there he is.

Yusei stares at me for a second, like he's still trying to register my presence. I take in the differences three months have encroached upon him, including the jagged mark on one side of his face that can only be a Detention Center scar. "Silvan?"

"Yusei?"

"Are you ok? What happened yesterday—"

"I'm all right," I say automatically. "I promise."

"That's where I've seen you!" Rua exclaims. "You were in Daimon yesterday! By the way, how do you know each other?"

"You were in Daimon, too?" I ask. "Jeez."

"Silvan is an old friend of mine," Yusei tells him. "We grew up together."

"Whoa," Rua comments. "That's cool."

"Your match is about to start. You'd better get going."

"Oh! Right! I'll see you in the finals, Yusei!" Rua runs off in the other direction, ponytails swinging as he goes.

"That kid must love dueling if he's willing to cross dress as his sister," I say.

"Yeah."

I turn to him and catch his eye. He looks almost older than he did three months ago, with a pride to his stance and a space hollowed out in his blue eyes designated for new experiences. I'm relieved to see that there's just enough room for me.

Before I can stop myself, I've broken our eye contact and trapped him in a hug; I've only now remembered how much I've missed him. Yusei returns the hug with a form of uncertainty in the way he moves, almost hesitant in touching me.

"I've missed you more than you know," I groan.

"I've missed you, too."

"Hug me like you mean it, then, you crazy asshole."

A low chuckle rumbles in his chest, and he pulls me away from him by the shoulders so that he can look at my face. "We have a _lot_ to talk about."

"Yeah. Yeah, we do. I probably don't have much time, though, because the crazy guy giving me somewhere to live could be anywhere. Though I think it'd be more convenient to connect my story to yours."

Yusei sighs, doesn't question it, and starts from the beginning as we begin to walk in one direction.

"I came through the Pipeline and found Jack first thing—we sort of broke in here to settle things, which is how I got this." He points to the mark beneath his left eye. "While I was in there, I met a couple of friends who are out in the stands."

"Because friends made in prison are friends for life," I joke.

He rolls his eyes. "I managed to deal my way out of the Detention Center, and my friend Himuro directed me to an old acquaintance of his named Saiga to help get my duel runner out of the impound yard. I went on sort of a drawn out chase after that and ended up in the Tops, which is the high-rise sector of Neo Domino where I met Rua and his sister Ruka."

"He's an interesting kid, isn't he?"

"Yeah. He reminds me a little of Rally. He and Ruka let me stay for a night and hide from the Security officers out for my head, but I went back to Daimon after that and Saiga gave me a place to live. It's where I'm living now, actually. It was yesterday that I saw you there, which is when the Black Rose incident occurred... I think that you know the rest from there."

"Yes, but how are you here? I've heard that the assholes in the stands don't take kindly to us Satellites."

"The Sector Security Director invited me," Yusei replies, his tone flattening. "I wasn't planning on participating, but according to him I have to if everyone back in Satellite is to go on living. That's why I'm happy you're here—I got this picture in the invitation and I was told that everyone in it was in danger if I didn't compete." Yusei takes a photograph from his back pocket and hands it to me; I've never seen it before, nor do I know who took the picture, but it shows Nerve and Blitz standing like they're going to challenge each other and me, Tank, and Rally sitting down at the table in the shack like we're their audience.

"That's messed up. I guess this is where my story starts," I tell him. "I've been in the city for a grand total of two days. Thursday was the three month anniversary of when you left, and I went out riding early in the morning for some fresh air. I got back and the guys were gone—I got jumped by these big guys in suits and managed to catch sight of Blitz while I was running from them. He told me to find you and that you needed some form of assistance, and insisted that I leave without them and save myself. I didn't see where they were taken, nor did I really have the time to go looking for them at the risk of being nabbed myself." I pause. "That probably sounds really terrible, leaving them to save myself."

"No, it's all right, I understand why you did. Saiga's going to Satellite to find and free them, so my conscience is a little more at ease. Please continue."

"I stopped by Martha's so I'd have somewhere to gather myself and figure out what to do. Crow also stopped by, which was a nice reunion, and both of them suggested that I take Nerve's advice and go to find you. So I rode through the Pipeline that night and was pulled over by a cop who believed I was from the city, but said he was going to arrest me for breaking curfew. That's when this guy, Divine, appeared out of literally nowhere and bailed me out by saying that I was a member of his movement."

"That would be the '_crazy person_' housing you?"

"Yeah. At that point, my mark was doing this weird thing where it wouldn't go out. Divine made some odd comments to me about waiting for me, sensing me since I was a child, and shit like that. He offered to let me stay in the Arcadia Movement building over night, and I lost consciousness after that because I got a really bad vision. The next morning, I met the girl who caused my vision to get so painful—"

"Backtrack for a second," Yusei interrupts. "What's the Arcadia Movement?"

"It's a haven for psychic duelists," I explain. "Divine is the leader of it, and he insists that I stay."

"That's... All right. You were saying something about a girl who gave you a painful vision?"

"Right. Aki Izayoi. She's Divine's star pupil or something, but she's got some stuff going on that I'm planning on digging up. Anyways, Divine was saying some really weird things, so I tried to use looking for Evan as an excuse for me to leave. It turns out, seven years ago, the Arcadia Movement is where Evan disappeared to."

"You found him?" Yusei asks. "That's _great_ news, Silvan!"

"Yeah, but not as great as both of us would've liked. According to him, Divine came to Satellite seven years ago deliberately searching for me. He talked to Martha about adopting me and she turned him away because she didn't trust him, so he planned on just up and taking me. Evan went with him instead because he didn't want anything bad to happen to me and going home with one psychic was better than none."

"That's horrible." He pauses. "Evan is psychic?"

"He's an empathetic," I explain. "He can change how someone feels. Like, if someone is angry he can make them calm and not remember why they were angry in the first place."

"_Wow_. Go on."

"I have to stay in Arcadia because Evan is there. There are some odd things going on in that place, and I really want to become friends with Aki because she really doesn't need the poisonous relationship she has with Arcadia."

"I agree with you. That was her yesterday, at Daimon—wasn't it?"

"It was."

"She wouldn't let me get near you. I'd say you're doing a pretty good job with the friendship goal."

"I doubt it's a _real_ friendship," I tell him. "Divine just tells her to be friendly with me. I'm trying to develop something real. Evan and I are also trying to find out about my mark because there are apparently some books in Arcadia that have information on it. We're trying to bide our time until Aki trusts me more than she trusts Divine so that we can slip away together."

"You've had quite the exciting two days," he remarks.

"You have no idea," I groan. "How about you, spending all that time in _prison_! I didn't peg you as a getting-caught-by-the-cops kind of guy, Yusei."

"Guess I was just being irresponsible," he retorts, bumping me with his shoulder. "In all honesty, I'm really glad you're here. There are some strange things going on." Yusei's eyes flicker down to his sleeve. Any normal person would think nothing of it, but I'm not normal and I know when something bothers my friends.

"Your mark?" I ask. "Tell me about it."

"It first showed up when I dueled Jack," he replies. "More specifically, when we summoned our dragons. One of the guys I met in the Detention Center told me that it's a sigil of this mythological being called the Crimson Dragon, and that everyone else with similar marks and I are supposed to save the world someday."

"Um. _Wow_."

"Yeah," he exhales. "They ran a bunch of tests on me while I was in the Detention Center to try and make it show up." Yusei's features twist into displeasure, like he's remembering something he doesn't want to remember. "The second time I saw it was yesterday, when I was trying to get to you. That girl Aki has a similar mark, right?"

"Yeah. Whenever yours glow, it makes mine go haywire. I literally lost consciousness when I first met Aki, it hurt so bad, and it was so much _worse_ yesterday with the both of you. I'm surprised I didn't spontaneously combust."

"I'm... Sorry..."

I cock my head to the side, listening in on his thoughts to hear what's bothering him, but all that I hear is silence. It confuses me, because I've always been able to hear him.

"What are you thinking?" I ask gruffly, my frustration at not being able to hear him seeping into my tone.

"Don't you know?" Yusei returns, eyes narrowing in bewilderment.

"Regrettably, I don't. For some reason, I can't hear you anymore."

"What? Could you hear me three months ago?"

"Why do you sound so disappointed?" I ask, sort of amused. It's almost like he wants me to listen in on him.

"It's easier when you can just pick it straight out," he sighs. "I don't have to say it."

"You've never had trouble saying anything before."

"It wasn't like this before."

I stare at the floor, having run out of things to say. "What _is_ bothering you?"

"When our marks glow, it hurts you. It got worse when I got closer to you." It isn't a question.

I realize that the frustration in his voice yesterday wasn't just because he couldn't help me, it was because trying to help me _hurt_ me. His hesitation in embracing me makes sense now, because he probably thinks that just getting near me in general will hurt me.

"I'm all right," is all I can say. "I'm always all right..."

"But what if you're not, next time? Jack has one of these marks, too. What if all three of them show at the same time? Someone else could have a mark, all four of them could show. What do you expect me to do then?"

"Get as far away as possible? I don't know... I'm still trying to figure out all the details of my own mark."

Yusei sighs. "I know. Sorry."

"Don't act like it's your fault, because it isn't. You haven't done anything wrong. It's not like you slapped the marks on us."

He opens his mouth like he's about to say something when my mark sends off a shower of green sparks.

"Whoa!" Yusei exclaims. "What was that?"

It sparks a few more times and I curse under my breath while I tug the cuff off again. My mark resumes its glowing and my fingertips suddenly adopt that same glow and begin to rise in temperature.

"Silvan," Yusei warns, "what's going on?"

"I _still_ don't know," I groan as drops of water begin to condense around my head. Before I know it, half of the hall is populated by small drops of water suspended in the empty air. I'm lucky that Yusei and I are the only two people in sight, because I think that I'd have a lot more explaining to do if someone else was here with us.

"This seems new," he mumbles, poking one of the drops and watching it move forward in the space in before it.

"Probably because it is," I sigh. "According to Divine, I have this weird attraction to water. It's started materializing in the air without giving me much warning, but look—" I move my glowing hand around and a cluster of drops closest to me move in the direction I push them in. "—I can make them do what I want with a little effort. Evan and I messed with it last night for a while, and he thinks I could burn it off into vapor or freeze it if I tried. Pretty cool, don't you think?"

"I guess. What's the point of it, though?"

"I'm not quite sure yet," I laugh. "It's just this nifty trick that sort of just happened."

I feel my fingers begin to cool, which means the ability is about to vanish. I almost don't have the time to push the droplets away from us so that we don't get soaked, but I do, and it sounds like rain when it falls to the tiles.

"That's going to be difficult to explain," Yusei muses, staring at the floor.

"Also kind of difficult to walk through. I'm hoping I don't slip." We move through a different (drier) section of the hallways, and I look behind us as we go. "I am never going to make it out of this place alive."

"It's actually not that confusing," Yusei begins, but is interrupted by Rua rambling towards us.

"I lost," he grumbles.

"Really?" I ask. "That seemed very quick."

"Don't remind me!" he groans.

"Don't be so upset," Yusei encourages him. "Losing now will just help you improve later on."

Rua looks up and smiles. "Yeah, you're right! Thanks, Yusei—I hope you win your duel!"

Two other kids of Rua's age come down the hall we were just in; one male, one female. The female is wearing a hat in an attempt to hide her face, but I can see that it matches Rua's almost exactly. This must be his twin, Ruka.

I frown as I realize that her mind is also starkly silent. I begin to wonder if Aki's silence isn't due to her psychic abilities.

"Be careful, the floor is wet back there," the male kid says, wiping off his glasses on his shirt.

"Huh, _gee_, that's so weird," I mumble, laughing awkwardly to myself.

"You were great, Rua, and there's always next time," Ruka tells him.

"Thanks... Sorry if I didn't really imitate you well."

"Hopefully that was a one-time thing," she replies under her breath.

The glasses kid scrutinizes me, his thoughts changing to the sifting of memories. "Hey, weren't you in Daimon the other day?"

"Christ, how recognizable am I?" I complain.

"I don't know, not many people are really _really_ blonde," Rua states in an attempt to be helpful.

Conversation ceases for a moment between all of us and my stomach suddenly drops as I see Aki coming towards us down the hall. Her eyebrows are furrowed in a thousand different emotions.

I clip the cuff back onto my wrist as nonchalantly as I can when she approaches us. Aki stands directly between me and Yusei, gives him a glare that could kill, then hooks her arm through mine and walks away with me falling behind.

I stare at him in alarm as we disappear from their sight and Aki exhales frustratedly to herself.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Do you even know who that guy was?" She exclaims.

"Yeah, his name's Yusei," I say casually, hoping that she thinks that we've only just met. "He's nice."

"He's the guy from Daimon yesterday, with the mark like mine. I don't trust him."

"Why?" _Because Divine told you not to?_

"Doesn't he look like trouble to you?"

"So does every turbo duelist out there," I try. "Trust me, he's nice."

"I trust _you_, I just don't trust _him_." Aki stops. "Why is the floor wet?"

I'm almost too caught up in her telling me that she trusts me to answer. "Oh, I uh... The water thing that Divine told me about? It happens at random times now and I was walking down the hall this time."

"Those braces should've done something," she mumbles.

"Oh, they did _something_," I say. "They made it worse..."

Aki's eyebrows narrow, almost in concern, and we continue down the wet hallway until we reach a drier stretch. "My duel is next; that's where I'm going. My opponent is some medieval knight called Jill deLauncebeaux."

"De-what now? Sounds French."

"I don't know where he's from—It doesn't really matter, because he's going to lose no matter what."

"It's great that you're so confident," I mumble half-heartedly.

"Divine has told me that he isn't very strong. I'm not so concerned. I watched Ruka's duel with that giant Bommer, and I know where I could've defeated him."

"Putting together strategies is good," I say.

"Will you watch from the wings?" She asks. "I'll feel better if you're there rather than back here. Those guards Divine brought are just shy of incompetent."

I frown, remembering the kindness of one of them and how he had been concerned for me, but follow Aki towards a door at the end of this hallway. She pushes it open and the first things I sense are a million different thoughts, all roaming and jumping and twisting and making it nearly impossible for me to focus on anything else.

"There are a _lot_ of people here," I whisper.

"_Yep_," she replies, lips popping on the 'p.'

"Good luck," I tell her as she moves forward, out of the darkness of the tunnel, and into the light of the arena. A hush falls over everything, and the MC taps his mic.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you enjoyed that last duel, get ready for the second round! All the way from western Europe—he's mean, he's lean, he's a fighting machine—give it up for Jill deLancebeaux!"

The man Aki appears to be facing steps onto the field in all nine yards of golden knight armor, probably from sometime in 1500's England. He gets a thunderous round of applause, complete with whoops and cheers that seem kind of obnoxious to me.

"And his opponent—we, er... We actually don't know much about her... A round of applause for Aki Izayoi!"

Parts of the audience tentatively clap for her. A few sections don't clap at all—they mutter amongst themselves. I can feel an uneasiness in the air from the people in the stands not knowing who she is.

Aki doesn't seem to react, her face remaining motionless as she goes to shake deLancebeaux's hand.

He hesitates at the receiving end; I scan his thoughts carefully and find that he knows Aki is the Black Rose Witch. He harbors a hatred for her, and he's determined to defeat and expose her as a 'Signer.'

But what's a 'Signer?'

I feel a presence come up next to me, and I spin around in time to see Divine coming up next to me. "Watching from here, are we?"

"Aki asked me to," I tell him.

"Aren't you a good friend."

There's a different atmosphere he's adopted, which I actually like better than when he's with me and Aki at the same time. He's become real, almost the cruel person I believe that he really is. It's no use to pretend around me, and he knows it—I've known Divine for two days and he already knows that pretenses are worthless around me.

"Divine," I say nonchalantly. "Let's stop the pretending, shall we? You know things about my mark."

"I suppose that I do. What does it matter?"

I twist the cuff on my left hand in a circle. "I'm going to stop wearing these because they do strange things to me."

"Fair enough."

It's the first time he's listened to me, so I suppose I've made good progress. The piece of paper burns in my back pocket and I wonder if I could pick something more from him. "By the way, do you know what Draíocht is?"

"It means magic," he replies, a poisonous smirk pulling up one end of his mouth. "Elemental magic, most traditionally."

_Magic_. Huh.

Aki crosses back to her end of the field, both duelists draw their beginning hands, and the duel begins.

* * *

**Finals begin tomorrow, and my mom actually got a girl up the street to help me study for Chem and Algebra 2/Trig... I may actually pass them after all! In other news, I really can't wait for summer and Friday when I get to see TFIOS. I heard it's fantastic. **

**Pretty sure everywhere else is already on summer break, so I'm just catching up now. I may be very silent this week due to dem finals, but hopefully I can celebrate afterwards with another chapter. I'm hoping to have it escalate from here—going to warn you here that the next chapter will begin with Aki and deLancebeaux's duel.**

**(More Japanese names. In case you guys don't know the transitions, Rua = Leo, Ruka = Luna, Bommer = Greiger, Himuro = Bolt Tanner, Saiga = Blister, and deLancebeaux = Gill Randsborg. Also turned Archfiend into Red Demons Dragon because I feel like I need to be consistent with these things). **

**Anyways, thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	6. Flower Buds

**Hey everybody! Here's chapter 6~! Enjoy!**

* * *

The cheering of the crowd settles down as the duel starts.

"I shall show thee no mercy, maiden!" deLancebeaux declares. I wonder if the old English is really necessary. "Masked Knight LV3, I summon you to the field!"

It's a little thing covered in medieval armor with an attack of 1500; a relatively weak monster.

"I will now activate Masked Knight's special ability, which shall allow me to deal 400 points of damage to you each time it is my turn!" A wave of its short sword, and Aki takes 400 points in damage. She doesn't flinch, though. "I shall proceed in activating the spell card, Level Up! Due to this card's ability, I am allowed to send my Masked Knight LV3 to the grave and erect Masked Knight LV5 in its place!"

The monster disappears in a multicolored blur, coming away to reveal a larger version of the same knight. It's stronger, though, with 2300 attack points. Aki still hasn't flinched.

"Now I activate Masked Knight LV5's ability, which permits me to deduct 1000 points from your life every turn!"

She still hasn't moved, and I'm less worried than I am curious at what Aki has in store for deLancebeaux.

"I will place one card face down and finish my turn."

Aki draws a card from her deck. "I thought you'd never end your turn. I summon Wall of Ivy in Defense mode!"

The monster is literally a big wall of thorns with 1200 defense points. I wonder what she's going to use it for.

"Next, I activate the spell card, Seed of Deception! Due to this card's ability, I can Special Summon a level 2 or below Plant-type monster from my hand! I summon Copy Plant!"

A twisted lump of brown vines appears with 0 attack and defense points. It seems useless—I wait for it to have a useful effect.

"I'll now activate Copy Plant's special ability, allowing my monster to copy the level of your Masked Knight LV5!"

"Black Rose Dragon so soon?" Divine muses from beside me. "She wastes no time."

"Black... Rose... Dragon?"

"Shh," Divine says. "This is a time to watch."

"Now I tune Copy Plant with Wall of Ivy in order to synchro summon your doom—Black Rose Dragon!"

It's a huge monster—maybe as big as Yusei's Stardust Dragon or Jack's Red Demons Dragon—with rose colored wings and thorns crawling along the ground. A heavy wind pushes through the stadium, and I can feel Aki's power beginning to pulse. The force makes my mark flicker, and I pull the cuff off to let it glow without difficulty.

"That card!" deLancebeaux exclaims suddenly. "It is the tool of a witch! The Black Rose Witch!"

The audience begins to murmur to each other, some agreeing with deLancebeaux's accusation and others wondering harshly if it's true. Aki doesn't pay them much mind.

"I'll now activate Black Rose Dragon's special ability—all cards on the field are destroyed!" As soon as Black Rose Dragon is the only card on the field, Aki sets a card face down. "Now, I activate the field spell, Black Garden!"

A forest of black thorns begins to grow along the arena floor. The audience's murmuring increases in volume, contemplating the revelation of the Black Rose Witch.

"What does that card do?" I ask.

"As long as that card is face-up, any monster that is summoned through something other than the effect of Black Garden will have its attack halved," Divine replies. "A Rose Token will then be summoned onto the opponent's side of the field in Attack Position. Aki, during her Main Phase, can destroy Black Garden and any monsters on the field to Special Summon a monster whose attack is equal to or less than the total attack of the destroyed monsters."

"Nifty."

"I'll end my turn now," Aki tells him, then steps back.

Just seeing this first turn of Aki's makes me a little uneasy; her dueling style is ruthless and almost taunting. I probably have a lot more to learn about her than I thought.

"I shall activate the spell card, The Warrior Returning Alive! Due to this card, I can now reinstate my Masked Knight LV3 by bringing it to my hand and then summoning it to the field!" He does as he's described, but Black Garden takes its effect as soon as deLancebeaux has finished his sentence.

A Rose Token (literally a red rose sprouting out of the vines entangled at the floor of the arena) grows next to deLancebeaux's Knight and immediately halves its attack points.

"Now I shall activate Masked Knight's special ability and deal you 400 points in damage!"

As soon as Aki accepts the fall in her life points, she flips her trap card. " I activate my face down trap, Doppelgänger! Whenever I take damage due to a card's effect, my opponent will take the same damage!"

deLancebeaux's life points drop by 400, still giving him the lead with 3600 life points while Aki has 2200. I sense something churning in the air, which makes me think that deLancebeaux won't have his lead for long.

"I set two face down cards and cease my turn."

Aki draws. "I activate the spell card, Mark of the Rose, and equip it to your Masked Knight! With this card, I'm allowed to take control of a monster of yours for my entire turn until the end phase—control will continue to switch until the monster or the equip card is destroyed!"

The Knight rushes over to Aki's end of the field and bows before her, which I don't see as the best idea. I seem to remember knights getting really offended and butthurt by betrayals.

"Now, Masked Knight, attack deLancebeaux directly!"

Attacked by his own monster, deLancebeaux falls to his knees; the wind in the stadium increases to a hearty gust and my mark glows brighter. I put my hand over it, concerned and hoping to avoid being noticed.

"Now I equip Masked Knight with Vengeful Servant! This card allows me to deal damage equal to your monster's attack points to you every time control switches back! I think now is an appropriate time to end my turn."

As per the cards Aki has activated, deLancebeaux's armor shudders and creaks from the damage he takes due to Masked Knight's reentrance to his side of the field. Then he flips one of his face downs. "I trigger one of my face down cards, Level Change! This card will allow me to trade Masked Knight LV3 and welcome Masked Knight LV5 back!"

Mark of the Rose and Vengeful Servant are destroyed with the banishing of deLancebeaux's monster, but Aki now has the upper hand like I suspected she would. Masked Knight LV5's attack is halved when it comes to the field, bringing another Rose Token with it.

deLancebeaux draws and stares at his hand for a while before making a move. "I will begin by activating Masked Knight LV5's special ability, allowing me to banish it to the grave in order to bring Masked Knight LV7 to the field!"

The monster stretches and grows, fitting its armor better and elongating its sword. It swings it menacingly back and forth, but Aki still isn't bothered. "Due to the effect of Black Garden, your Masked Knight's attack is halved and I get to bring another Rose Token to the field!"

"No matter! I equip Masked Knight LV7 with Glory Shield and send it to vanquish your Rose Token!"

Tokens like those can't be destroyed by battle, but Aki does take the difference in damage. Masked Knight LV7 swings its sword and her life points drop to 1550.

"Due to Glory Shield's special effect, I am allowed to destroy one spell or trap card on the field! I will destroy your Doppelgänger!" The card breaks into shards of light, and deLancebeaux points across the black landscape. "Now, because of masked. Knight LV7's special ability, I can deal you 1500 points of damage!"

Aki's life points decline to 50, and deLancebeaux sets a card face down before ending his turn. I can sense that the card he set is called Martyr Flag, and it will double Masked Knight's attack points during Aki's battle phase to default damage done by any attacking monsters and win the duel.

"She's going to pull something from her back pocket, isn't she?" I ask.

"She usually does."

Aki draws. "I activate the effect of Black Garden! I can destroy it and every Plant-type monster on my field in order to summon a monster with an attack of the combined points of every monster I discarded—return to me, Black Rose Dragon!"

"The card deLancebeaux has face down will defeat her if she doesn't tread carefully," I mumble.

"Well now, how would you know that?"

"Intuition," I say flatly.

"Now, I activate Black Rose Dragon's secondary effect! By removing a Plant-type monster in my Graveyard, I can make the past tack of your Masked Knight 0 until the end phase!"

"There it is," I say. "She's won."

"I remove Wall of Ivy! Now, Black Rose Dragon, lay waste to the field!"

And it does. The wind pushes faster through the stands, and I hear a woman scream. My mark pulses hotly and deLancebeaux is thrown to the ground with a line of blood forming along his cheek. Now I know what Evan meant when he talked about real damage during duels.

The MC attempts to announce that Aki has own, but is drowned out by the screams from within the crowd. She walks back to us in silence, ignoring all of the people telling her that she's a witch and evil and worthy of death.

"That's a bit cruel," I grumble.

"Yes, fear of psychics in this city is possibly worse than the prejudice against Satellites," Divine replies. I think that that's biased, though, because the people in the stands are only being assholes because they're afraid of Aki. If she'd given them a reason not to be afraid, they'd probably be cheering for her.

"You've done well, Aki," Divine croons when she's within hearing distance.

"Yeah," I say. "Great job. Maybe we could have a duel sometime."

"That sounds like fun," she replies. It's an odd switch in her emotions—now she's pleasant when she was cruel and taunting a few moments ago. Divine doesn't want her to show her face when she goes out, so something tells me that the hardened version of her I just saw was her mask today.

"Are we staying until the end of today's tourney?" I ask. "Or will we be heading back now?"

"I personally don't want to hang around here much longer," Aki says, yawning a little. "May we go home, Divine?"

"Silvan?" Divine asks, vying for my input. I know he probably doesn't really want it, but wants Aki to think that I have a choice.

"We can leave," I exhale.

"Marvelous. Let's head outside." I trail behind Aki and Divine as they go back through the tunnel and into the labyrinthine stretch of corridors and hallways. The floor is almost dry by now, and the number of competitors in the viewing room has gone down. I see Yusei there, beside Rua still dressed as Ruka, with what looks like a scowl on his face and his hand clamped over his right arm. I wonder if his mark also reacted to Aki's dragon.

He turns and sees us when Divine stops and the guards come over, then walks in my direction. I wonder if he's going to try to talk to us, when he walks right past me and puts something in my hand as he goes. I crush it in my fingers and follow Aki, who doesn't seem to have noticed Yusei's passing. It feels like paper, but I promise myself not to look at it until I'm with Evan in private.

The truck is mostly silent as it goes back to Arcadia, conversation only existing in broken pieces and shards between Divine and Aki. I'm not listening most of the time, but when I am, I'm hearing them talk about the duel and who they think she'll be pitted against in the next round.

"How about that Satellite fellow," Divine mentions, "Fusei Yudo or something like that."

"Screwed up a couple of the letters there, Divine," I chime. "Yusei Fudo is who you're trying for."

He raises an eyebrow at me, curiously vying for me to say more. I don't.

"I still don't trust him," Aki mutters.

"You don't even know him," I reply in amusement.

"Well, neither do you."

I'm surprised at how quickly I answer. "You're right, but I consider myself an utterly fantastic judge of character and I say that he's a very nice person."

"Just because he tried to help you in Daimon doesn't mean he's nice... Maybe he just wants to know about your mark..."

"Or I'm just insanely good looking and he couldn't bear to see such an attractive young lady in pain." I toss the back of my hand over my eyes dramatically, and Aki actually smiles a little. When I resume seriousness, I smile back. "If he wasn't nice, I'd sense it. I can do those things."

"Even so, he's given me no reason to trust him, let alone like him at all."

I laugh unenthusiastically, air pushing out of my lungs in a sigh. "You actually hate him, don't you?"

"I think I hate anyone with my mark," Aki replies firmly.

Divine appears to be sitting back to watch us converse, like every good analyst does when examining his experiments.

"You don't hate me," I challenge, leaning forward.

Amusement flutters in her eyes. "You don't know that."

"Yes I do," I say in response to her sarcasm. "I can feel it, remember?"

"Yes well, you don't technically have my mark. And you've given me a reason to like you."

"Well, gee, I feel very special." It's the first time I've seen such a whimsical air to Aki's attitude, much less towards me. Maybe Yusei was right—maybe I am doing well with this friendship thing.

The truck pulls to a stop and Divine rises, still silent to see if Aki and I have anything else to say to each other. He helps her out and I jump down on my own, staring emotionlessly at him as I pass.

"What do you have in your hand there?" He mutters, moving closer to me.

I slip the paper into my back pocket as I turn to face him, praying that he doesn't notice. Then I hold up my hands and stare at him like he's gone insane. "Uh... Fingers?"

"Clever girl." He glares flatly at me and passes brusquely, catching up to Aki with his coat flapping in the slight breeze. For a moment, I think that I've fooled him, but there's something about Divine that makes me think that I've lost before I've even tried. For all I know, he can see the damn future.

We enter the Arcadia Movement and Aki stretches her arms above her head. "I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Sweet dreams," I say. "I'm going to tell Evan about the match."

We pass up the elevator together and part down different extensions of the same hallway as she heads to her room and I head to mine. I find Evan already inside with piles upon piles of books scattered and stacked on top of each other. He sits in the center of a crescent of the same stacks of books I saw him carry in this morning.

"How was the match?" Evan asks, not looking up from the book he's currently got his nose in. He sounds very disinterested.

"You probably don't care," I sigh, walking around him nonchalantly.

"You're right, I don't. See, I can totally predict what happened." He glances up from the book, catches my eyes, and says, "Aki won in five or six turns, using Black Rose Dragon's ability at least twice, used Black Garden at least once, and inflicted some physical damage on either her opponent, the people in the stands, or both."

"That was scary accurate."

"It's not unusual. Her winning streak holds a pattern." He fingers through some of the book's pages. "Did you have a good time?"

"Actually, I did. Yusei was there, even though I didn't really expect him to be. We got to catch up."

"That's nice."

I sigh and sit in the crescent with him, pulling my knees up against my chest. "You don't care, so let's get right to it. My ability, with the water? It's called Draíocht."

"I know," he mutters. "It's elemental magic, not as strong as Elementalism, but a type of enchantment used among Greek dryads and Celtic faeries. That's the language, by the way—Irish Celtic."

"Celtic—well then."

"Mmhm. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether it was Catholic or Celtic, and I think that the mark is Celtic because Catholicism doesn't have a history of people with strange marks. A lot of these old books are in the language, but the dialect is long dead and I can't find any accurate translations."

"Let me see," I say eagerly.

"Sure." I reach for the book he's holding and he pulls it back. "No, not this one. I can actually read this one. Take any of them off of that pile."

I take what looks like a leather bound journal with deteriorating yellow pages from the stack he pointed to and flip through it. The only thing inside it are a series of slashes along multiple black bars but, again, the odd thing is that I can read it.

"That one's full of lines and scratches," Evan remarks. "Useless, if you ask me."

"It isn't useless," I breathe. The lines begin to form words in front of my eyes, words that I know. Words that have been stirring in the back of my mind since the dawn of time. "_De réir an cumhacht seo a charm, Rn Sábháilte mé ó curse agus seoltóir mar sin, mote sé a bheith_."

My mark sends off a shower of sparks and a green glow stretches over me, knocking over a pile of old books as it solidifies into what looks like a dome of green glass.

"What the hell!" Evan exclaims. "What did you do, Silvan?!"

"I don't know!" I shout, barely able to hear him. The dome flickers and disappears then, leaving me with an oddly sluggish feeling in my brain.

"What was that?!" Evan tears the book from my hands. "It's just a bunch of fucking lines! How the hell did you do that?"

"I have no idea," I breathe.

"At least tell me what you said."

"I—I don't know how to translate it." I look at the passage again. "_De réir an cumhacht seo a charm_; that's like... It's like asking for power from jewelry or, like... Like..."

"A charm?" Evan asks. "You said the word 'charm.'"

"Yeah, like a charm. Then, _Rn Sábháilte mé ó curse agus seoltóir_, saying something along the lines of being safe from trouble—"

"Hold on." Evan flips through a few pages, scanning the one he lands on. "_By the power of this charm,_

_Safe am I from curse and sender—So mote it be. _Is that it?"

"Y-Yeah, it sounds like it."

"Silvan, you just cast a protection spell!" He stabs his finger into the book he's holding and narrows his eyes. "Magic is supposed to take outrageous amounts of energy, let alone focus! How are you still conscious?"

"I-I don't know! Stop yelling at me!"

"I'm not yelling," he mutters. "This is just, you know, exciting! It's a breakthrough!"

"I'll agree that it's a breakthrough, but so what?" I groan. "Yeah, my mark appears to be from somewhere in Ireland. I can suddenly speak the language and make walls of psychic energy by reading a few weird lines, but so what? I want to know what my mark means and why I have it. Not just where it came from."

"Don't you think I've been looking for that? There literally isn't any information on what the mark stems from, or what it entails."

"Evan," I sigh, sifting obnoxiously through his memories. "Where did you get these books?"

"The historical ones in our language, I got from downstairs. The ones in Celtic, I nabbed from Divine's study."

"Goddammit, Evan."

"He never notices that they're gone," my brother protests earnestly. "And besides, what does he need them for?"

"Evan, Divine was the one who told me what Draíocht is. These books belong to him, he knows more, and I need to find out what!"

"I know, I know. Maybe he has a secret study in his study or something."

"That's ridiculous."

"Maybe it isn't. Divine does seem like the type of person to hide secrets inside secrets, doesn't he?"

I contemplate the words for a moment, then skim the pages of the booklet again. "I think this is a spell book, Evan. There are a lot of things in here that sound mystical and shit. Potions and Incantations and Casts and stuff..."

He glances up. "Try another one. See what happens."

"You just said that they take outrageous amounts of energy—"

"—well, you seem to be fine, so what's the problem?"

I exhale sharply, which sends a tuft of my bangs flying. My eyes fall on a familiar word. "I wonder," I say. "_Eilimint Uisce, saor in aisce flowing reáchtáil abhainn agus easpa farraige, lig do chuid oibre cumhachta is fearr sin, is féidir mo intinn a léiriú gníomhais mighty do Draíocht_."

Instantly, my mark lights up and my fingertips glow a warm green. Beads of water form in the air and Evan eyes me coldly. "If you get any of these books wet, I will wring the water out of your neck."

"Whoa there," I laugh. I move my hand in circles, directing the droplets with the direction I flick my wrist in. "This is kind of fun."

"Yeah, well, you don't know how long it'll hold up."

"Relax. There's a reverse spell below it."

"So do it," he whines.

"Someone didn't get their beauty sleep..." I skim the next line for the words I'm looking for. "_Fill ar ais ó gach áit a tháinig tú—vaporize_."

The glowing in my fingertips burns bright and the condensed water fades back into the atmosphere. I start to laugh and I can't stop, because even though I haven't found out what I wanted about my mark, I've found something else that's pretty fucking awesome.

"You sound like a lunatic," Evan remarks.

"Oh, go read your books," I retort. I flip through the pages of the spell book, reading out all of the incantations in my mind. "Do you think Divine would mind if this particular book went missing from his collection, you know, forever?"

"I don't see him using it to cast spells."

"I'll take that as permission to let me keep it," I say. Then I remember the thing Yusei dropped in my hand and I pull it out of my back pocket. It's a piece of paper all right, crumpled from my grip on it. When I've flattened it enough to see what's been written on it, I see what looks like an address.

"What's that?" Evan asks.

"Yusei gave it to me. I'm assuming it's an address," I tell him, handing over the paper.

Evan reads it and hands it back. "It's somewhere in Daimon. I'd need a map to know exactly where."

"Why don't you take one from Divine's office?" I sigh.

"I've never found one."

"That's odd."

"Probably because he doesn't want me formulating any escape routes," Evan retorts, "which is completely worthless because I don't have anywhere to go anyway."

"Well, I'm here now," I encourage. "Maybe he knows that you could go somewhere with me."

"Where would we go? It's a big city."

"Which is why we could go anywhere we want with a map," I point out.

"...Touché." I stand. Evan stares at me. "Where are you going?"

"To find us a map," I tell him. There has to be one somewhere."

Evan looks down into his book. "Be careful."

"No promises!" I tuck the spell book into my back pocket and exit the room, peering down the hallway to see if anyone is coming. I push the button on the elevator and wait for it to come down, turning around and checking to see if anyone is coming before I pull the spell book back out of my pocket and flip through the pages. Disenchantments, Love Potions, the Protection spell I used earlier...

I step into the elevator and continue to look for something useful in this situation. Evan said that these spells take a huge amount of energy and focus, which makes me a little nervous since focus isn't my greatest area. The elevator opens with a little ding I come across some more familiar words.

"_Féth fíada_," I mumble. "_bequeath dom shroud, ceocháin an ghleann._"

My mark glows, and I focus on the glowing. I let it wash over me with a brush of cool air, and suddenly I can't see my own hands. I turn them over, watching the air shimmer as I do so. "Invisibility charm," I mumble, and my voice echoes. "This is so cool."

I walk along the hall and stand behind the door, stretching my hand out to pull it open and stay out of sight. I keep my eyes focused on the shimmering air, hoping that it's enough to keep the charm up. It would be a mess if the spell fell apart and Divine caught me, so right now I'm trying my hardest not to focus on failure.

No one comes out of Divine's study, so I slip inside and shut the door gently against its frame.

The room has a desk and one shelf of books, all of which appear to be in a language that hasn't been dead for centuries, and I wonder where Evan got the books Divine has been keeping. There are a few empty spaces on the shelf, and I theorize that Divine purposely put them out in plain sight so that Evan would take them. It's a very likely way for Evan to have gotten things from Divine without suspecting that he was hiding anything else.

Then again, he did mention secrets within secrets—I wonder if Divine is hiding something in here.

I pull open a couple of the desk drawers, searching for a button or something that could possibly open a secret door. When I've sifted through worthless papers and found nothing, I go to the bookcase.

Before I can touch it, I hear the doorknob turning. I freeze, staying perfectly still and trying my best to imagine keeping the spell up in order to keep my focus, when Aki peeks into the room.

"Divine?" She asks aimlessly. I could've sworn she told me that she was taking a nap. Maybe something's wrong. There's no answer, and she begins to leave, but then she stops and looks back. "...is there someone there?"

I hold my breath, afraid to make the slightest noise, and Aki goes. I realize that, if she can sense me in the room, Divine probably can as well. Getting caught definitely wouldn't be in my best interests. All I have is a spell book and a mark that does odd things at odd times—I can't do much good with them now.

I don't know why I decide to do it, but I let my mind wander and the spell immediately wears off, leaving me feeling abnormally tired. I put the spell book back into my pocket and sit in the chair in front of Divine's desk, waiting to see when he'll come in. I assume that straight terms will be better than hidden agendas, especially with a man like him. Divine's kind like to work in the dark but deal face to face. Judging from where we've landed as of today, I'd say I'm on straight terms.

Until he comes, I sit staring straight ahead and let only my eyes wander. It's the first time in a very long time that I've been so utterly still and quiet, and the product of it is very interesting. It's almost as if I can feel every living thing for a long way away, hear their thoughts and feel their pulses beating against their chests in different rhythms.

There's a jewelry store about a block west from here that's being worked by one employee who's pissed that he didn't get to go to the first round of the Fortune Cup. I can sense a woman in a dog park four miles away with a corgi named Reymond running to bring her back a tennis ball. I see a family in an apartment complex down the street from here whose children are arguing over which cartoons they should watch.

I can hear every individual thought of every being in this entire building, save for the two I want to hear the most. I feel footsteps coming down the corridor towards me, and a rush of cool air entering behind them.

I've never once felt so alive, and nor has focusing had such an innate effect on me. It makes me feel so... _Powerful_.

Divine pushes the door open. "What brings you here?"

"I want a map of the city," I tell him firmly.

Divine sits in his chair, his face trying to settle on one emotion. "A map. Why ever would you want that?"

"It's a big city, it's only fair that I know where I am at all times."

He raises an eyebrow at me.

"I'm gonna level with you, okay?" I sigh. "You need me, but I don't need you. I'd leave right now if it wasn't for my brother, but right now I really can't do anything. Please humor me; I need a map."

"Aren't you eloquent. If it's a map you'd like, I'll get one for you." Divine pulls open the bottom drawer of his desk, shuffles through some things, and hands me what looks like a pamphlet. "Assure me that you know where you're stepping from here on out."

"I assure you," I retort," I know where I'll be stepping and the place listed the most on my agenda just so happens to be your toes." I smile as dryly as I can as I take the map and leave, letting the door close behind me. I can't help but to think that that had been too easy. I unfold the pamphlet, which appears to be a huge sheet of thin paper with, sure enough, the shape of Neo Domino City drawn out on it in ink.

That had been _way_ too easy.

I go back down and open the door to my room, where Evan is looking through a different book. He looks up when I come in. "How'd you get it?"

"I asked," I say flatly, and Evan adopts a curious facial expression.

"You _asked_ him for it?"

"Interesting, isn't it? I don't know what he's trying to pull."

"If I know Divine, he definitely has something planned. Let's look at that map."

I unfold the map out on the floor and Evan traces it over with his eyes. He points to a spot on the coast of Neo Domino. "We're right here. Satellite is this land mass over here... Let me see that address."

I give him the slip of paper and Evan spends some time searching for exactly where it is. He finds it in a row of streets to the southeast; "It must be a small space, a garage or something."

"Sounds about right," I reply. "I think I'm going to check it out tonight."

"That may not be the best idea," Evan comments. "You asked Divine straight up for it, what are the chances that he'll be waiting for you if you try to sneak out?"

"Ugh," I groan. "You're probably right. I'll wait a couple days. What do we do now, then?"

"Let's see, Sil, you've just discovered a spell book with a bunch of crazy powerful ancient incantations in it. Why don't you take a walk and see what all of them can do?"

"Maybe I will," I say, ignoring his sarcasm. "You just keep reading your books."

"Not like I had much else to do," he mumbles.

I laugh to myself as I exit the room and go back down the hallway to the elevator. As the doors are closing, a hand blocks the door. "Wait! Silvan!"

"Aki?" I ask, punching the open door button. "I thought you were taking a nap?"

"I couldn't sleep. I thought maybe I'd take you up on that dueling thing."

"Really? I'd love to." Honestly, looking through the spell book in plain sight may be a bad idea. I'm confident in my theory that Divine left it out in plain sight for Evan to take, but letting him know that I can read the lettering inside probably won't end well. "Where will we go to duel?"

"There's an arena in the sub level. We can go there," she replies, pressing the bottom most button. As the elevator begins to descend, I pull my jacket down over my back pocket to hide the top binding of the book. I'm almost nervous to duel Aki—I didn't expect to be doing it today, so I didn't have as much time to analyze her strategy as I'd have liked.

It starts to get colder in the elevator as we get lower in the building. I put my hands around my arms and the doors open to let me and Aki out. We come into a long hall and Aki points to a door in front of us. "That goes out to the viewing room, where you can watch who's dueling. Let's see if the field is empty."

Aki pushes open the door and we find Divine standing inside with his assistant Seria. They look at us as we enter. I can't help but wonder how Divine keeps showing up so quickly everywhere I go.

"What brings the two of you here?" He asks coyly.

"Is there anyone in the arena right now? Silvan and I want to duel."

Divine raises an eyebrow curiously. "No, the floor is yours. May I spectate?"

"Of course, Divine. Come on, Silvan."

I don't look back at him as we exit the room and go back down the hall. Aki pulls open a different door that leads down a flight of stairs. I follow, still aware of how unusually cold it is, and we're suddenly at the bottom of the stairs. Aki opens another door and we come out into a wide open space with white lines painted along the ground.

I cross to the other end of the arena. "Wait—my duel disk is with my duel runner."

"You can borrow one," Aki calls as a person in Arcadia robes passes her her pink duel disk.

A different man in the same robes gives me a duel disk of an old model, probably one of KaibaCorp's older generations. I strap it onto my arm and pull my deck out of the box attached to my belt so that I can put it into the draw slot.

"Are you ready?" Aki asks.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I say. "Why don't you go first?"

We draw our hands and Aki begins the duel. "I summon Twilight Rose Knight in attack mode!"

The monster is small, like a child dressed in a paladin's armor. The air suddenly becomes charged around me.

"I activate its special effect—when I summon this card, I can summon another Level 4 or below Plant type monster from my hand. I summon Lord Poison!"

A curtain of blue light draws back to reveal a monster crafted of dangerously sharp black thorns. I know that she's going to summon her dragon, so I mentally prepare myself for the burning of my mark.

"Now I tune Twilight Rose Knight with Lord Poison in order to synchro summon Black Rose Dragon!"

The burn comes with less of an intensity than I expect, and I wonder if it's partially due to my concentration beforehand.

"I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

I draw a card and begin accordingly—I luckily have the materials to summon a dragon of my own. "I summon Cyber Dragon—when cards exist only on my opponent's field, I'm allowed to special summon this card from my hand."

It's less of a dragon and more of a big metal snake with 2100 attack points, but it isn't enough to compare to Black Rose Dragon. "Next I'll summon Quick Span Knight!"

It's a tuner monster that's always reminded me a little of a cartoon wrench—perfect for what I need to accomplish.

"Now I tune Cyber Dragon with Quick Span Knight in order to Synchro Summon Dreaded War Machine Dragon!"

It's a huge mechanical dragon, about as huge as Yusei's Stardust Dragon, and shock begins on Aki's face when the metal monster's appearance causes her own mark to begin glowing. "W-Where did you get that monster, Silvan?"

"I've had it," I say. "Since the day I started running this deck, I've had it." I don't mention that I collected a lot of my cards through trading and through the heaps of trash gathering in the south of Satellite. "I activate Quick Span Knight's ability from the Graveyard; when he's used in a synchro summoning, I can deduct 500 ATK from one of my opponent's monsters."

Black Rose Dragon's attack points fall to 1900, making it lose some of its thorns and petals.

"Go in for an attack, War Machine Dragon!"

"I activate my face down trap, Rose Blizzard," Aki interjects, flipping one of her face downs. "I can negate your attack and end the battle phase."

"All right, then, I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

My face down cards are Rare Metalmorph and Full House. In case Aki lifts the attack of Black Rose Dragon back up or attempts to equip War Machine Dragon with a card like Mark of the Rose, Rare Metalmorph will give War Machine Dragon 500 more attack points as well as negate the spell or trap she activated. If Aki activates Black Garden, Full House will allow me to destroy it and all other set spells or traps she has on the field. Hopefully I've set up for the worst, unless of course she has another strategy that I haven't yet seen.

Aki draws. "I'll begin by activating Black Garden! Next, I summon Wall of Ivy—because of Black Garden, its attack is halved, but the effect of my monster still stands. I can now summon a Rose Token as well as an Ivy Token onto your field!"

The tokens take root onto my side of the field alongside my dragon—I wonder why Aki hasn't used Black Rose Dragon's effect yet.

"Now I activate the spell card, Fragrance Storm! Due to this card's effect, I can destroy one Plant-type monster on the field and draw a card. If the card I draw is a monster, I'm allowed to draw one more card—I choose to destroy your Ivy Token!"

Shining yellow shards fly everywhere; I wonder what she's pulling.

"Due to the effect of the Ivy Token, once it's been destroyed, I can deal you 300 points in damage!"

My mark pulses. The monster shatters, and the damage I take is legitimately painful. It's only 300 points, but it hurts like hell—I can only fear how much pain I'd be in from an attack of a higher caliber.

"I-I activate Dreaded War Machine Dragon's special effect," I stutter. "Every time I take damage, this monster gains attack and defense equal to the life I lost."

My dragon's attack goes up to 2800 and Aki takes another card from her hand. She has more now, so I assume that she ended up gaining two more cards from her spell combo earlier. "I activate Seed of Deception! Due to this card, I can summon one Level 2 or below Plant-type monster from my hand. I summon Copy Plant!"

The monster rises to the field in Defense mode. I remember it from Aki's duel with deLancebeaux. It has no attack to halve, but it does bring a second Rose Token onto my field. I'm already putting together what I can do with them.

"I'll copy my Wall of Ivy's level. Now, due to its effect, I can summon Dark Verger from my hand!"

Three monsters, all LV 2. Does she have another synchro I don't know about?

"Now I tune Copy Plant with Wall of Ivy and Dark Verger in order to synchro summon Splendid Rose!"

The monster takes the form of a woman with cropped hair and vines crawling from a clump of tendrils at her feet—it has 2200 attack points, which isn't enough for War Machine Dragon, but possibly for the Rose Tokens.

"I activate Splendid Rose's special ability—once per turn, I can halve the attack of one of your monsters by removing a Plant-type monster from my Graveyard! By removing Dark Verger, I can now halve the attack of your Dreaded War Machine Dragon!"

1400 ATK points is what I'm left with, which definitely isn't enough to stand up to Black Rose Dragon, who still has 1900 ATK points. At least, unless I activate one of my face down cards...

"Black Rose Dragon, destroy Dreaded War Machine Dragon!"

"I activate my face down spell, Rare Metalmorph! Due to this card, I can raise Dreaded War Machine Dragon's attack by 500 points, which is just enough to lock our monsters in a stalemate and destroy them both!"

Black Rose Dragon and War Machine Dragon shatter at the same time, leaving me with no damage but also no monster.

"Fine—Splendid Rose, attack the leftmost Rose Token!"

I lose 1400 points in damage, which stings like I'm on fire, but my life is still at 2300 and I can hold out.

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

I draw my card and attempt to throw something together. "I'll begin by activating my face down card, Full House! Due to this card, I can destroy up to three spell or trap cards on the field, regardless of whether or not they're face up." Black Garden fades away, as do the face downs Aki threw earlier. "Now, I activate Machina Armored Unit! Once per turn, I can special summon a Machina Monster from my deck or hand besides my normal summons once every turn. I summon Machina Soldier! Due to its special effect, when Machina Soldier is the only Machine-type monster on my field, I can summon another Machine-type monster! Come out, Machina Sniper!"

Three monsters, now. Machina Soldier and Sniper, with their heavy metal armor and piercing red layers for eyes, and that one insistent Rose Token. I'll find something for it.

"Now, because of Machine Armored Unit, I'm allowed to summon one Machine-type monster from my deck! I summon Machina Defender!"

Aki's eyes watch me and my monsters insistently, trying to read what I'll do next.

"Due to Machina Defender's special effect, I'm allowed to summon Commander Covington from my deck!"

The monster is a little commander in itself, wheeling out to the front of my line and crossing its mechanical arms behind its back like a general observing his battalion. "I activate Commander Covington's special effect! By sending Machina Soldier, Sniper, and Defender to the Graveyard, I can presently summon Machina Force!"

I definitely have a lot of ace monsters, but I'd say that Machina Force is my best. A whopper of a monster with 4000 attack points and an arsenal of big awesome-looking guns; using it would require paying a toll of 1000 life points, but it'd all be worth it in the end.

The one card left in my hand was , and I was definitely going to set it, but there was one more plus that my card combo would bring me. "Because I just sent four Machine-type monsters to the Graveyard, I can summon Machina Cannon to the field. Don't worry about it having 0 attack points, because it'll gain 800 for every monster sent to the Grave to trigger its summoning."

One monster with 4000 ATK and another with 3200 ATK—there was no way I could lose. Though, I feel through this that the duel we're having isn't the best Aki can pull. It's safe to say that she may even be letting me win. I'd bet that this exchange is only to test my strength. That's probably why she didn't activate Black Rose Dragon's effect when she had the chance.

I let my mind pick its way up the side of the walls and into the glass box where Divine and Seria are watching us from.

According to the shaky feeling I get from Divine's outer shell and the convenient commentary from Seria's obnoxiously honest thoughts, I'm dueling in a fixed tourney. Divine must've woken Aki up and asked her to duel me and lose—that would explain our current situation.

I don't let it bother me—this may have been a dummy duel, but I will get a real one someday.

"For a simple fee of 1000 life points, I can let Machina Force attack your Splendid Rose head on!"

The whirring of metal gears fills the arena while Machina Force prepares to fire on Aki's secondary synchro. I catch her face across the way, which seems very unimpressed.

I think that, even though I'm participating in a fake game, I want to send a message and say that I could win if it was all real.

My mark sends off a shower of sparks, and for some reason the air around me literally begins to sizzle. If I look closer, I can see particles of water materializing and then popping from the increasing temperature around me. It's almost like I'm deathly enraged and I can't keep the rage from spilling over and burning everything in its path, but the odd thing is that I'm dead calm.

Machina Force fires, ripping a hole through Splendid Rose, and sends shock waves through the ground underneath us. I know they're real, because my body weight shifts back and forth beneath me and Aki falls onto her back as her life points become 2200.

I have to shout so that my next words are heard above the quaking. "Machina Cannon, finish this duel!"

The gears in its gun begin to shift and the pressure in the air gets so great that gravity starts to force us down. I hear an odd creaking and, as soon as Machina Cannon fires, the glass panels on the viewing room shatter and fall like rain over me. I raise my arms over my head to block out the tiny shards and the room is filled with a bright white light as the damage my monster inflicted takes its toll.

I'm still on my feet when the light fades. The field is empty, but large vertical crevices have split the gravel apart and I'm still covered in small pieces of glass. Aki sits up, clenching her teeth, and I hear Divine call out. "Are the two of you all right?"

"I'm all right!" I exclaim, shaking the glass out of my hair.

"I-I'll be fine!" Aki returns. I stumble across the arena, jumping over cracks and deep crevices to get to her. I hold my hand out to help her up and she takes it, brushing the dirt off of her coat. "What just happened?"

"I have no idea," I reply, even though I sort of do. "Was any of the damage you took real?"

"No, it didn't feel real."

"That's good," I say. "Glad you aren't hurt."

"Your duel disk," Aki murmurs.

I glance down at it and see that parts of it have cracked off and blackened, and other areas have disintegrated altogether. "W-Wow—glad this isn't actually mine..." I pull my cards back out of the slot and unclip the disk from my arm. When it hits the ground it shatters into a million pieces with a burst of lethal-looking electricity. "Whoa," I say.

"Y-Yeah."

Divine rushes into the field and takes in the sight of the arena. "Well, would you look at that? That was quite impressive, Silvan."

"Thanks?" I ask, trying to seem as clueless as I possibly can.

"I wasn't aware you were capable of this much."

"Y-Yeah, me neither!" I exclaim. "I think I need to sit down."

Aki automatically puts her arm through mine and places her hand on my shoulder, as if to help me walk. I go with it, pretending that I'm tired, and let Aki walk me out and up into the elevator again.

"That was unlike anything I've ever done," she says when we're inside. "All of my collateral damage has been relatively minor compared to that..."

"I don't even know what I did."

"Neither do I, half the time. Don't worry—Divine can help you learn to control it."

The next thing that comes out of my mouth is totally unintentional, but I regret it once the last syllable falls from my lips. "Did Divine help you to control yours?"

She opens and closes her mouth. "He, um... He's tried to and I've controlled it for a while, but it always kind of relapses. Divine says that it's an anomaly with my abilities."

The way her voice catches makes me rebuke the idea even more. Maybe she second guesses it, too. What just happened has made me sure of something—Aki can control her powers. She just doesn't want to for some reason.

Evan is traipsing through the hallways with one of the books under his arm when he sees us come out of the elevator. There's an intrusive feeling of peace that settles over me and I push it away. Confusion comes on next, and I think that Evan still has forgotten his hold on me and changed his own emotions. "Hey, did you two feel that quake?"

"You're damn right I did," I groan. "Ironically, you're looking at the cause of it."

He stares at me, and Aki continues. "Silvan and I were having a duel."

"I see," Evan replies. "Come with me, Silvan, we can go get some fresh air in the garden."

"May I meet you outside?" Aki asks. "I need to have a quick chat with Divine."

"Fair enough," Evan tells her. I follow him back towards the elevator, and we don't speak until we're outside. "Wanna explain what that was?"

We walk along the hedges and I twiddle my thumbs anxiously. "Divine pit me in an exhibition duel against Aki. I thought we were going to just duel for fun, but I'm pretty sure that Divine roused Aki from her nap and asked her to duel against me and lose on purpose so he could test my power."

"Sounds like Divine to me."

"Aki seemed very unimpressed by my dueling, so right before I won I sort of, um... Willingly shook things up. No pun intended."

"Let me get this straight," Evan replies slowly. "You caused an earthquake because you wanted to prove a point?"

"And I proved it!" I exclaimed. "I caused more damage in a minute and a half than Aki has in her entire life, all without hurting anyone!"

"You're an idiot," he groans.

"I don't care—I made my point!"

"Yes, you did. What exactly did you want out of that, anyways?"

"Divine wanted to see power, so I gave him power."

"I don't understand."

"I caused an earthquake and shattered a bunch of glass, a shit ton of damage that Aki could probably wreak accidentally. I didn't hurt her, though, and I didn't hurt anyone else. I did it because I wanted to make a point to Divine, not because I wanted to hurt anyone. If I'd wanted Aki to get hurt, I would've hurt her."

"Huh. Maybe that was a little better than I gave you credit for."

"See? I am smart," I say.

"Don't push it, Sil."

We come into a big square of hedges filled with walkways all edged with flowers. "Nice garden," I say.

"You'll never guess who grew it," he says.

An unintentional peek into his mind, and I have my answer. "Aki grew it?"

"Interesting, isn't it? A girl obsessed with destruction and sorrow can give life to something like this."

"I wouldn't say she's obsessed," I object. "Aki seems like she wants to be kind, but no one has given her a reason to yet."

"Maybe, but don't you think she'd have reached out to someone if she wanted to change?"

"Or Divine convinced her that he was the one she should reach out to," I reply. "That man has a lot of things wrong with him."

Evan exhales. "Maybe you're right. I don't know—I've known Izayoi for two or three years and she's always been the same."

"Maybe you're just not being persistent enough. You're being pretty ironic for a guy who can sense and change people's feelings."

Evan glares at me.

"Hey, these are nice roses," I say as we pass a big plot of budded red roses.

"If you haven't noticed, Izayoi likes her roses," Evan tells me. "She's been waiting for them to bloom for weeks now."

"I don't know much about flowers, but it looks like they should be blooming any time now," I say.

"They've looked like that since February."

"Maybe they need plant food or something?"

"She tried that. Waters them every day, too."

"Magic?" I ask, pulling the spell book out of my back pocket.

"Is that a good idea?" Evan asks as I leaf through the pages.

"Sure. Just a little might go a long way."

"Can you control it?"

I scoff. "_Can I control it_." I find a spell to bless crops, which I guess is close enough. "_Sos agus faoi bhláth, cré thorthúil._" My mark glows and my fingertips get warm, like they do when I cast Draíocht. I suspend my hand over a few of the roses and the petals begin to open in a chain reaction until every rose in every bush is in full bloom. I pull my hand away and close the book as my hand cools down. "See? Everything is fine."

"That's remarkable," Evan tells me. "I've been reading about those spells, and apparently they were used by Irish farmers and town elders to ask their deities to bless whatever the spell asked for. Like blessing water supplies and harvest seasons and protecting their villages from natural disasters. People would form, like, incantation groups and faerie circles and chant them over and over again."

"Weird," I say. "Why do they actually work when I use them?"

"It's recorded that some people in royal families actually had talents for magic and could cast those spells over their kingdoms, but only after decades of training."

"Like Merlin and stuff?"

"I guess. They're only legends, but I'd say after this that they're pretty real."

"What, are we royal or something?"

"Doubtful. Since we're twins, we'd both be able to use it, and I can't. Plus there's no record of anyone of royal blood bearing the mark that you do."

"Back to square one, eh?" I ask.

"Seems like it."

Aki comes down a pathway to our left and sees the roses. I stick the book quickly back into my pocket.

"They finally bloomed!" She exclaims.

"Guess they just needed a little help," I say cheerfully. "Sunlight, open air..."

"I guess so. They've been buds for as long as I can remember. I'm happy they've finally opened."

"When did you plant these?" I ask.

"A year ago, I think. Divine said that I could use this little square of land for whatever I wanted. I ended up doing this."

"It's really nice," I say. "You have quite the green thumb."

"Thanks." Aki looks at her feet. "Divine says that the arena should be fine and fixed by the end of the week."

"That's... Great! I'm glad that no one was hurt."

"Me too. And don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to get it under control next time."

"Yeah," I say half-heartedly. "I'm _sure_."

Evan's thoughts ring out at me, deliberately thought at me. _Are you ever going to tell her?_

It's times like these when I wish I could talk back. I meet his eyes and nod as Aki gently starts picking through the roses, checking to see if every one of them has bloomed. I don't have to check—I know I opened all of them.

* * *

**So. Finals are over, but I find out tomorrow if I have to go to summer school... :P hopefully I can wiggle in a lot more this summer than I think I am. **

**The duel between Aki and deLancebeaux (fun fact: his name is actually just Lancebeaux, the 'de' is just a title added on which I guess is translates to "of." Like, Jill of Lancebeaux or something. Dunno if he really is French, but that's how it would be if he was. Nerdy fact of the day *thumbs up*) is their actual duel, just different words spoken. I didn't watch the play-by-play on the sub, I just kind of found a summary of their duel on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki. Silvan and Aki's duel was a bit more fun to stage, especially since Silvan has a lot of fun monsters with really confusing effects and Aki's deck and strategy are a bit more set in stone. All of Silvan's cards are real (with the exception of Dreaded War Machine Dragon, which I think was created by someone on a forum. Thought it fit Silvan's deck, though). I actually run a Machina deck myself, which made it a bit easier to stage her moves. **

**The spells Silvan casts are real for the most part, with the exception of a few little tagged on Irish Celtic words to tweak them to their purpose. The spell book will come up a lot more in the future, as well as how Divine acquired it. The language on the inside is called Ogham (some people refer to them as a form of rune) which is an actual Old Irish dialect written in slanted and horizontal lines—it was actually used to write spells. **

**Yes, Silvan's mark is Irish Celtic. Yu-Gi-Oh! works with Egyptian, Aztec, and Nordic mythology—one more addition to the mix won't do so terribly... Will it? ;)**

**Thanks for reading! **

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	7. Tolerance

**Heeeelloooo! Next chapter! Enjoy! **

* * *

The first thing I do the next day of the Fortune Cup is find Yusei. It takes me longer than I hope, which isn't really in my best interests.

I'd gotten up that morning and fiddled with the spell book, trying to put together how I would explain everything to Yusei. He had to know—knowing more about my mark could help him figure out about his.

Divine had been oddly persistent and clingy when we got to the viewing area, forcing me to bow out and "take a bathroom break" before we watched Aki go out to duel. We'd come later in the day, too, so I'd missed Yusei's second round duel.

He'd won his first duel against someone called Mukuro Enjo and promptly captured the hearts of the audience. I don't know why I hadn't expected that. His second match had taken place this morning, against Rua's opponent Bommer. Like all of his turbo duels, it belonged to Yusei, and he was bumped straight up to the semifinals. One step closer to Jack.

I learned all of this through Divine, who spent our truck ride to the Memorial Circuit briefing Aki about "what she had to look forward to in the next round."

Aki had returned with an unimpressed roll of her eyes, which I'd chosen not to address. She'd learn to like Yusei eventually; I'd make sure of it.

I promptly meet with Yusei as soon as I see him, jogging down the hall and grabbing the back of his jacket before he can walk away.

"Whoa," he exclaims, "a little warning, Silvan."

"Sorry," I pant. "I have news."

"Maybe you should breathe first. Come on, Aki's match is about to start."

"Divine is probably out in the wings... We can watch from the viewing room."

"I was actually heading to where I'm keeping my duel runner; you can come with me. What's your news?"

"Sounds good. Before I say anything, congrats on winning your last couple of duels. Sorry I wasn't able to watch them—I've been very frequently dragged across this city."

"Thanks," he says. "They were fun. Your news?"

"Right. Look." I pull the spell book out of my back pocket and hand it to him. He pulls the clasp open and stares at the first couple of pages, eyebrows pulling together in confusion.

"Exactly—what am I looking at?" Yusei asks, squinting as his eyes cross the pages.

"What do you see?" I ask tentatively.

"A bunch of parallel lines," he replies, "but if I look at it for a long time, I can start to see letters."

"Evan found it in Divine's study," I say. "Even more, it can do some crazy things."

"My eyes are starting to hurt," he mumbles, handing the book back. "What do you mean by crazy?"

I flip through the pages and recite the invisibility spell. I watch my hands holding the book disappear in front of my eyes, and Yusei curses loudly when the rest of me turns transparent.

He stares straight through me for a long time and cautiously waves his hands in my face. "...Silvan?"

"I'm still here," I say, touching his shoulder.

He flinches instinctively. "Are you... _Invisible_?"

"Cool, right?"

"I'd categorize it under downright _scary_. How are you doing that?"

I release my string of focus and watch my body materialize back into the world. "This book—it's full of spells. Evan found out that my mark comes from Ireland, and I can readily read the words in here. My mark gives me the ability to actually cast the spells written inside."

"That doesn't make any sense," he says under his breath.

"What do you mean?"

"Your mark lights up when mine does, right? Wouldn't that mean they're all similar in some way?"

"I-I guess, but I think if they were exactly alike they'd have to look the same," I reply. "Why? What are you getting at?"

"I was told that my mark comes from this ancient Aztec tribe called the People of the Stars."

"Aztec? That's, uh... in Peru, I think. Really far from Ireland..."

"You think?" He retorts. "Why does your mark light up when mine does? They're pretty far from being similar at all."

I groan. "One mystery after another..."

"It's great that you found stuff out about your mark, Silvan, but a lot of things remain covered up. We still have a long way to go."

"I know," I sigh. "I'll tell Evan to do more research..."

"Which reminds me," Yusei replies, "I've been thinking about what you said, how you can't leave Arcadia because your brother is there. Why can't he leave, either?"

I open my mouth to answer and then close it again. "I... I don't know. I've never questioned it. I assumed it was because he had nowhere else to go, or something..."

"Maybe he has something he's attached to, something he can't leave behind?"

"No, he hates Arcadia and he's made it clear to me. You're right—I'll ask him about that, too."

"Get back to me when you do."

"I'll be sure to do that." We walk together to the end of the hall and towards a side door that leads into a little garage. Yusei's red duel runner sits in the center, and I can't stop myself from approaching it and stroking the back of the frame. "Damn, I've missed you."

Yusei laughs lightly as he peels his jacket off. "Want to help?"

"God, do I!" I notice a man on one side of the room watching us as we come in—he's built like a heavyweight champion and sports a couple of Detention Center scars.

"Who's your friend, Yusei?" He asks.

"Oh, right. Silvan, this is Jin Himuro. I met him in the Detention Center. Himuro, this is Silvan. We grew up together."

"Nice to meet you," I say.

"Likewise. Didn't I see you at Daimon?"

"So you were there for that escapade, too," I mumble. He's Yusei's friend, and I trust the company Yusei keeps, so I pull my jacket off and show him the mark.

"_Deeeeeeefinitely_ not a tattoo," Himuro comments. "So, you also glow."

"Unfortunately. I'm also psychic, so I should warn you that if we're going to be friends, expect some weird shit to go down when you're near me."

"Fair enough." Himuro seems very cool about me being psychic. His thoughts tell me that he has no hostility towards me as long as I'm not hostile towards him, of which I do not plan to do.

Yusei turns on the monitor on his duel runner, letting us view the beginning of Aki's duel with someone called Kodo Kinomiya—a Duel Profiler, or something. I sit on the ground on the other side of Yusei's duel runner, waiting for him to open up the panels.

I'm actually nervous about this fight, because the profiler will have extensively researched Aki and he'll know what makes her tic. I hope that Aki keeps her self control, or at least attempts to maintain her cool.

I haven't seen her break under pressure yet, but I'm as curious as I am nervous to see it. In my experience, people are like geodes: you have to break them to see what they're really made of.

Yusei passes me a pair of needle nose pliers and pops open the side panel for me to watch while he plays with the interfacing.

"I may have caused an earthquake yesterday," I mumble, watching the wires.

"Jeez, Silvan," Yusei sighs; he doesn't sound surprised. "Anything else you're leaving out?"

"Actually, the earthquake thing applies to our current situation. No matter what this Kodo guy pulls, Aki is going to win this duel and face you in the semifinals."

"Can you see the future now too, or something?"

"No," I say flatly. "I dueled Aki yesterday. I won, but only because she threw the match. At the end of it, I wreaked a bunch of collateral damage, caused an earthquake, broke some glass, but I caused it because I wanted to make a point. I didn't hurt anyone because that's not what I wanted to do. If you want to beat Aki today, that's your key; you have to convince her that controlling her power is her own choice."

"Interesting breakthrough. I'll remember it. Anything else you've learned about her?"

"She's very... Dependent. At the same time, she's very independent." One of the indicators goes off. "Three."

"Three," he repeats. The indicator clicks off, and he keeps testing the controls. "How does that work?"

"She depends on Divine to the point where he's like her crutch, but she also seems like she doesn't want anyone else around her besides him. She's always like, "Of course, Divine," and "do you mind if I do this, Divine?" Like, as long as she has his permission, she can do whatever she wants. Hardly within reason, either."

"She doesn't like me much," Yusei adds, a rueful smile pulling up one side of his mouth. He pulls the accelerator and the duel runner lets out a light rev. A few of a gears in front of my eyes rotate easily. "I have no idea why, though. I haven't done anything to offend her, have I?"

"She claims that she hates anyone with a mark similar to hers," I tell him, "despite my attempts to convince her that you're not actually a terrible person."

He sighs. "All about these freaking marks, huh?"

"I guess so."

"But what if they aren't bad?" Yusei wonders. "What if they're good? I mean, Aki, Jack, and I are supposed to save the world. You have a spell book full of helpful things, don't you? What if the marks are supposed to be good?"

"I could get behind that. I mean, none of us are really bad. Sure, Jack's a dick and Aki can be sort of cruel, but I wouldn't say that they're evil."

"Speaking of cruelty," Yusei sighs, gesturing at the monitor. Himuro comes from the other end of the room to watch with us.

"Third turn, I think," I say, watching. Aki has Black Garden in play and is about to send Violet Witch to attack Kodo directly. He has one face down card on his field, which seems far too suspicious. "She's not going to watch for that face down."

"No, she isn't."

I make a note of Aki's impulsiveness. I remember how careful she seemed in our duel, the one that wasn't real.

Kodo takes the damage, then flips his card. "I activate my face down: Crime and Punishment. This card allows me to destroy your Violet Witch and summon a Level 4 monster from my hand. Come, Agent of Hatred!"

"0 attack and defense points," Yusei mumbles. "I wonder what the point of it is."

"Black Garden doesn't do anything since it has 0 attack points, but it does give Aki a Rose Token. You're right; I wonder if it has a big effect."

"I activate Violet Witch's effect from the Grave—I can add a Plant-type monster of my choice from my deck to my hand!"

She ends her Battle Phase, and Kodo taps his duel disk, where Agent of Hatred sits on the activation square. "Due to this card, I'm allowed to increase my life points by the damage I just took from Violet Witch's attack."

"Back to square one," I say out loud. "Are they both at 4000?"

"I think so. This guy has an interesting strategy."

I point my eyes back at the screen and wait to see what happens next.

"Fine by me! I summon Phoenixian Seed!"

It's attack is halved because of Black Garden, and a Rose Token pops up on Kodo's side of the field.

"Now I activate Rose Flame! Whenever a Plant-type monster is special summoned to your field, you take 500 points in damage!"

Kodo takes a barrage of rose-colored flames straight on, which I can see causes him actual damage. His clothes are torn in places and giving off smoke. "Are we reenacting your first duel from eleven years ago, Izayoi?"

"What's he talking about?" Yusei whispers.

"Shh," I say, waving my hand across his face.

"The thrill of winning for the first time awakened the powers lying dormant within you," Kodo continues. "They destroy everything around you. They turn you into a plaything of carnage. And now you simply can't stop."

I see Aki's eyes narrow in what's almost distress. "My powers do more than damage that which is around me—They damage people's wretched, prejudiced hearts, and they'll continue to destroy until I wish for them to stop!"

"That girl has some serious issues," Himuro comments.

"She's wrong," I mumble. "She knows she can't control what she does. The more she feels, the more she does. And Divine is constantly telling her to feel instead of think."

"Kodo seems to be making it worse," Yusei remarks.

"Maybe he's trying to," I say. "He's a profiler. It's his job to find out what makes his subject tic."

"You act like a monster, Izayoi, and this world is for humans," Kodo tells her. "End your turn so that I can expose you at long last." Aki glares pointedly across the overgrown arena and ends her turn. Kodo draws a card. "I activate Mind Monster, and declare Black Rose Dragon!"

A lump of goo appears on Koda's side of the field, suddenly chiseling itself into the shape of Black Rose Dragon. Murmurs grow in the crowd and tension rolls in the air between me, Yusei, and Himuro. All three of us are anxious.

"Upon the activation of this card, I can declare a monster in your extra deck—if it happens to be there, you'll take damage equal to half the attack points of the selected monster!"

Aki is bombarded with the fake dragon's vines, and her life points drop to 2800. A rolling cheer spreads through the crowd.

"People are really terrible," I comment.

"Yeah," Yusei exhales. "They are. Aki really isn't making things better, though."

He's right, in a sense, but I don't reply.

Kodo switches his Rose Token into defense mode and ends his turn. Aki draws a card and stares at it for a while before making her move. "What's wrong?" Kodo shouts patronizingly. "Doesn't the Arcadia Movement have faith in your power?"

"Ouch," I say.

"I've come here for those who believe in me," Aki tells him flatly. "My power is one that they need. By sending Phoenixian Seed to the Grave, I can summon Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis!" Black Garden halves its attack and brings a Rose Token into Kodo's end of the field. The summon brings 500 more points of damage to Kodo due to Rose Flame, and Aki sends Phoenixian Cluster to attack his Rose Token.

"If you think about it," I say, "you could actually read Aki's mind if you look carefully enough."

"How do you figure?" Yusei asks.

"She duels a specific way every time, and she shows enough intensity to help you predict what she'll do next."

"Proof?"

I smile at the ground. Yusei is very fond of justifications. "Obviously she'll end the duel with Black Rose Dragon, but her expression tells me that she's getting sick of Kodo's shit. One more crack at her past, and she might just put him in the ground."

"We'll see."

Kodo's on the ground now, having taken damage from the Token as well as Phoenixian Cluster's self-destruction effect, and I can see deep-seated fear in his eyes. He is very literally fearing for his life.

"D-Due to Agent of Hatred, I can regain some of my lost life!" Kodo pulls himself to his feet, his jacket laying across his shoulders in loose tatters. He doesn't look like that life gain did him anything.

"Kodo looks scared shitless," I remark. "New future cast: he's going to piss her off so badly, this duel will end before he loses all of his life points."

"I hate to imagine it, but you could be right."

"I set one card face down and end my turn," Aki declares. "Due to Phoenixian Cluster's special ability, it will now return to my field!" Again, the plant returns and a Rose Token appears on Kodo's field. He takes 500 more points in damage due to Rose Flame.

"That guy's getting cut up pretty badly," Himuro says. "I'm surprised he's still standing."

"Me too," I reply. "When I dueled Aki yesterday, just taking 300 points in damage hurt like hell."

"I tribute my Rose Tokens to summon Mad Profiler!" Kodo tries, replacing every monster on his field with a beatstick of his own. A Rose Token erects itself on Aki's end of the field. "Next, I activate its effect—by discarding one card in my hand, I can remove a card on the field from play. I'll choose Black Garden!"

The endless tendrils of thorns encasing the field fade away, and suddenly Kodo's Mad Profiler returns to its full power of 2600.

"By removing another card, I can reactivate Mad Profiler's effect and remove your Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis from play!"

Aki's field is clear now, save for her Rose Tokens and her one face down.

"Mad Profiler, attack the rightmost token!"

The token isn't destroyed, but Aki still takes damage; her life points plummet to 1000.

"Now, I equip Mad Profiler with Destruction Insurance! Due to this card, if you destroy Mad Profiler, you'll take damage equal to half of his attack points!"

"That's a win," Himuro says. "If she doesn't get rid of that card, she's done."

"She'll pull something," I reply.

"I'll now equip Mad Profiler with Lightlow Protection! If Mad Profiler's attack is changed by a card's effect, that card will automatically be destroyed! Now I end my turn!"

"If she summons Black Rose Dragon next turn, she can't use its effect without risking its destruction," Yusei points out.

"What about her face down? It could be a hell of a game changer for all we know."

"True."

"I summon Twilight Rose Knight in attack mode!"

"Brace yourself," I groan, standing to back as far away from Yusei as I can get.

"Now I tune Twilight Rose Knight with my two Rose Tokens in order to synchro summon Black Rose Dragon!"

My arm lights up, as does Yusei's, and the pain is incredible. I expected it this time, but I didn't brace myself accordingly. Black spots push into my vision and I fight to stay conscious.

"Silvan," Yusei calls with difficulty, "are you—"

"I-I'm fine, I'm fine," I stutter, my fingers curling against my skin. "B-Be quiet, let me hear."

"Bring it on, Izayoi!" Kodo calls. "I'll turn the tables! I'm not afraid of some monster, some castaway whose parents didn't want her!"

The pain increases to something intolerable—I can't move my hand to my mouth fast enough to keep myself from crying out. My vision has reduced to light shadows and blurry shapes.

"_Dammit_, Silvan," Yusei groans, and I hate that he has to see me like this. Why can't he just not care about his friends like a normal and pessimistic human being?

"Kodo, you will not get away with trampling on other people's feelings!"

"Please, Izayoi, with my equip spells and Agent of Hatred, there's no possible way I can lose!"

"We'll see about that! I remove Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis in my Graveyard to activate Black Rose Dragon's special effect! I can now reduce your Mad Profiler's attack points to 0!"

"HA! Due to Lightlow Protection, Black Rose Dragon is now in your Grave!"

My nails dig into my arm; any pain is better than what I'm feeling right now. All I want is for Aki to end her duel, and end it _now_...

"I play Rose Curse! It will inflict damage equal to the attack points your Mad Profiler just lost! This is what cruel humans like you get, Kodo—sic him!"

The fire inside me peaks and suddenly goes out; my spontaneous blindness clears, and I find myself curled into a ball on the floor of the garage. Yusei and Himuro come across the room to see if I'm okay.

"Silvan," Yusei says quickly, "are you all right? You're burning up."

"Y-Yeah, don't tell me twice. I feel like it gets worse every time." I hold his hand on my shoulder, because his skin is cool and it soothes my scorched flesh. "She won, didn't she?"

"Add foresight to your list of strange talents—she did."

"Figured," I groan. "That was hellish."

"It looked like it. Sorry."

"Not your fault," I cough. "Looks like you're in the tourney with her next."

"Oh joy."

"You'll be fine," I say. "If anyone can knock some sense into her, it's you."

"I'll try my best," Yusei replies. "I'm not so sure Aki's going to be someone who can be easily gotten through to."

"You're right—she isn't. Our friendship in Arcadia is as staged as our duel was. If you break through to her, it'll be easy for me to finish the job and shatter Divine's influence on her." I give him a half-smile. "No pressure."

He rolls his eyes. "Thanks."

"I'm going to see if I can catch Aki on the way out. If I don't see you between now and your duel with her... Well, Godspeed." I take my jacket off of the floor and slip it back on. "Don't be surprised if I randomly show up at your place in the middle of the night."

"At least you warned me," Yusei says. "Stay out of trouble, Silvan."

"That's so impossible," I reply, pushing open the door. I run back down the way I came with Yusei at first, hoping that I'm not hopelessly lost, and pass by the viewing room. I turn down another corridor and see Aki coming towards me, her hairpin in one of her hands and her bangs hanging down at a length enough to cover her eyes almost completely. "Aki! Are you all right?"

She looks up and meets my eyes. For a moment, I'm looking at a sad little girl who just wants to go home, and then she's the Aki who hides again. "Hi, Silvan. I'm fine."

"That guy was an asshole. Don't let the things he said bother you."

"The thing is that they did," she states. "I don't know how he knew what he did, but he knew just how to make me angry. I don't like that. I don't like people knowing about me without my permission, or thinking that they know me in general."

"He was just a profiler," I say gently. "It's his job, he's paid to research people—or I guess in this case, he wanted to win and so he searched you up. He's just one of those scummy types that doesn't care who he hurts as long as he gets what he wants. Not everyone is like that. Don't worry. Here, let me see that." I hold my hand out for her hairpin and tuck her bangs back into it despite the strange metal burning my fingers under my gloves. "Better when you can see, huh?"

"Thank you," she tells me, almost like it kills her to get the words out.

"Now you're in the semifinals, and it's going to be fun—okay?"

"Hardly. I've never seen your Yusei friend duel before, so I'm not totally sure what to expect."

I scoff as realistically as I can. "I wouldn't say we're friends, more like uh... Mutual acquaintances with similar interests or something."

Aki eyes me suspiciously, but seems to buy it. "Do you know anything about his dueling style?"

"I didn't see any of his matches," I reply vaguely. It's not technically a lie, because I really didn't.

"I'll ask Divine... Maybe he can tell me."

"I doubt he knows—he didn't see any of Yusei's matches either. Best you can do is just mentally prepare yourself for the worst and do, um... Do what you've been doing." The next hour or so may be very painful for me and for Yusei—the chance that Aki will wreak some actual damage on him is pretty high, and that's something I don't want to be a witness to.

I feel like such a hypocrite. Just a few minutes ago Yusei was worrying about me being in pain and I was bellyaching about his concern—now I'm bracing myself for the difficulty level of what Aki will put him through.

"Do you think I'm going to win, Silvan?" She asks.

"Well, I can't see the future or anything, but I know you'll bring the house down." Maybe even literally. I rub my hand along my jacket, the coolness of the leather helping to lower the temperature of my skin.

"I suppose you're right."

That's when Yusei comes back around the corner; I wonder if he's been listening to us. Aki stands closer to me when she sees him, sort of like a mother would to her child when something bad was about to happen. I notice her covering where her mark is, despite it not being visible anyways.

Yusei notices it too. "Why is it such a terrible thing that you and I have that? What does it mean to you?"

"I _detest_ anyone and anything having to do with it," she replies coldly. The undertones of her speech make me think that she's really saying that she detests _him_.

Yusei's face remains stoic—he's long since mastered the silent hero outfit—and he inhales like he's about to say something back. They're interrupted by Rua and Ruka, who come running in from behind us. "Yusei, the final is going to start pretty soon! You should start getting ready for it!"

Ruka notices me and Aki first. Her fingers twitch towards her right arm when she sees Aki. Then her eyes move to me and her expression becomes curious.

I can't hear her, same as before, and I theorize that Ruka also bears a mark similar to Aki's and Yusei's. Why else would she react to Aki the way she has?

Then Rua notices us and jumps back like he's had the ultimate scare. "A-AH! WITCH LADY!"

_Really?_ I think. _Was that really necessary?_

The air charges between me and Aki, and I have to put my hand on her shoulder to remind her that I'm still here, and to keep her from doing something bad to Rua.

There's a presence in sense coming towards us, but there's barely a thought to listen to. It's like Martha's mind, quiet as if it's learned not to think. I see a small man coming in our direction—he looks almost like a circus clown, complete with purple hair, outlandish makeup, and decorative coat. I wonder why a circus clown wouldn't need to think.

"Miss Izayoi, your performance in the last duel was certainly admirable," he says smoothly. I immediately don't trust him because of the poison in his voice, a poison I hear in Divine's voice all the time. "Director Goodwin has requested an audience with you."

Director? As in _Sector Security _Director? What would he want with Aki?

Someone clears their throat, and I know it's Divine even before he and his pair of Arcadia guards step in front of us. "There you two are—I was beginning to worry." It's like the first words he said when I met him, but a lot more shifty. "My apologies, but Aki is a bit tired from such a taxing duel. She needs a rest."

"May I ask who you are?" The clown man inquires, folding his hands behind his back.

"Call me a _caretaker_," Divine replies coyly. "Your group has already done a thorough investigation; now, if you don't mind, Aki must rest herself before the final."

I don't understand what he means—it's a cryptic enough statement to leave behind as we're ushered away. That's probably what Divine wanted.

"Who the hell was that?" I ask.

"His name is Yeager," Divine tells me. "He's Director Goodwin's slippery little assistant."

"Did they pick him up off of the roadside circus, or something?"

Divine gives a short laugh and doesn't answer me.

"Divine," Aki asks meekly, "why does Director Goodwin want to see me?"

"Goodwin is merely a figurehead for his job description, but he's also the puppet master for the Yliaster groups here, bent on undermining our progress."

"Yliaster?" I ask. "What's that?"

"They're a group of people at the head of this city who aim to resurrect the Crimson Dragon to dominate the world."

"I feel grossly uneducated about this whole thing," I say.

"The Crimson Dragon is the mythical being that gave me my mark," Aki explains. "Yliaster wants to use it and all others who bear this mark to take over the world."

"I see," I mumble. "So Goodwin wants to see Aki so he can use her."

"Exactly."

The whole thing sounds very suspicious—I don't know what this Yliaster is, and I feel like I shouldn't trust Divine's take on them. The weird thing is that I don't know if he's right or wrong, because his opinion is the only leg I have to stand on. I decide to stay comfortably neutral.

We exit into the lot, where the Arcadia trucks are still sitting from where we left them this morning. I follow Aki up into it and sit down on a bench nearest the door. Divine takes Aki into the other, larger area of the truck where she has this odd 'treatment' I don't know about.

I'm alone for a moment, left to observe the truck that I think is nicer than a truck should be. There's a sink and a stove and a table on the other end, like someone could live here if they wanted. I notice Aki's Black Rose Witch mask sitting on one end of the table.

Divine comes back out of the chamber and passes me, his trench tossed over his arm. "Did you watch Aki's duel with Yusei Fudo, Silvan?"

I have nothing to lose. "Yes. Do you have a problem with that?"

"He could be a member of Yliaster, did you think of that?"

"Except he's _not_," I say.

"Just how long have you known him?"

"Longer than you think," I mutter.

"I see." Divine puts a clear vase full of water on the table across the room, next to Aki's mask. "Do with this what you please." He leaves without another word, leaving me and Aki alone inside the truck.

I wonder if he knows about the spell book, or if he just thinks that the water thing is a straight up ability.

Then again, it could be. I used it before without the spell. I pull the book out of my back pocket and cross to sit at the table, placing the book in front of me. I don't want to use the Draíocht spell, but I do want to try something else that I saw in the book this morning. "_Talisman, múscail agus a dhéanamh ar mo tairisceana._"

My mark lights up. Nothing else. There's no burn, no charge in the air, no anything. The spell is only to trigger the power used to cast spells, hence trigger my mark.

I hold my hand in front of the vase and stay silent, like I did when I was in Divine's office. I can feel the oxygen branching out into my lungs as I inhale, the blood flowing through my veins, and the energy that's itching to get out from behind the mark. If I concentrate hard enough, I can feel the particles of water moving against each other inside of the vase. _I want to move them_, I think. _Come out of the container._

My fingertips light up, and the water stretches up out of the vase until not a drop is left inside. I move my hand and the water follows it, drops of it floating aimlessly away until the bigger mass catches up with them.

"Freeze," I command, but nothing happens. I wonder what the word for it in Celtic is. "_Reoite_," I blurt without thinking. This time, the blob freezes in midair and lets off a spray of snow. It moves with my hand, but it doesn't break off like the liquid did.

I look at the mark. The glow doesn't falter. Maybe the language has been built into me like reading the lettering is.

The Celtic word for melt, I think, and immediately out of my mouth comes, "_Leá_." The ice breaks apart and I feel the molecules speeding up as it turns back into a liquid. I spread the water out into the air, making shapes and pictures with it until I wonder if I can vaporize it. "_Gal._" Suddenly the water bubbles into steam and disappears. I feel the fast-moving particles bouncing throughout the room, until I decide that I want it to be water again. "_Uisce_."

This time, all of the water around the room condenses and floats around in the form of little drops. I bring them towards the center to put them back into the vase, but Aki swings the door to the other room open so quickly that it breaks my focus and water falls everywhere.

Aki lets out a squeak and puts her arms over her head to shield herself. "Silvan!"

"S-Sorry!" I exclaim. "_G-Gal_!" My mind isn't as focused as it was, so it takes a while for the water to vaporize—when it does, it bursts back into the air without warning.

"What did you just do?" She asks quickly.

"Hang on, I need to focus." The room gets quiet and Aki examines the steam flying up into the air. I slow down my breathing and focus on the blood pumping beyond my veins and Aki's tensed muscles keeping her on her feet. "_Uisce_."

The vapor becomes water and I concentrate on stretching it back into the vase, until I sense Aki take a few steps towards me and my focus falters slightly. The rest of the water falls into the vase and sends droplets splashing onto the table.

"What were you doing?" She asks curiously.

"Divine left this here," I say. "He told me to mess with it, so I did."

"What were those words you were saying?"

"Magic," I say. "They helped change the phase of the water."

"M-Magic? That's kind of impossible, isn't it?"

"Evidently not," I tell her. I slip the spell book on the table back into my pocket before she can notice it and ask about it. My mark still glows, and I try to think of a way to extinguish it without her seeing. I watch her stare at her Black Rose mask and move to pick it up.

"Aki," I mumble, "do you really need that?"

"Of course I need it," she replies harshly.

"Whoa. Don't kill me."

"I'm sorry," she exhales. "I'm nervous. Yusei Fudo—I don't know what to expect."

"Is this about you hating him?"

"Partially. He seems almost curious about our marks, and especially about me. I don't like that he wants to know about me—I'm perfectly happy and safe behind the walls of Arcadia."

I bite my bottom lip, wondering if I'll regret this. "...but are you?"

"Yes," Aki tells me firmly, but she sounds unsure.

I don't answer and she doesn't continue, which leaves an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air.

Divine pushes the door open—I can sense him before I see him. "Are you ready, Aki?"

"Yes, I think so," she replies.

"Good," Divine says, stepping inside. He approaches her and adjusts her hairpin. "This will definitely help you when it feels like your powers will overwhelm you."

"I hope."

"Don't worry," he laughs gently, and for a second he's fooled me into thinking that he isn't some lying, duplicitous, poisonous bastard. I can see how Aki trusts him, because he's mastered the facade of the fatherly figure Aki has missed out on. "I know you'll win and show these people that they should be cheering you on."

Aki looks at her mask in her hands and gives Divine an easy smile before she exits the truck.

"I don't think I've truly seen the face of evil until today," I say out loud.

Divine laughs to himself. "It doesn't appear that you've done much with that."

I glance at the vase out of the corner of my eye. My mark, still glowing, sends off a shower of sparks—suddenly the water inside begins to bubble furiously and the glass shatters. It bounces off of the cabinets and walls of the inside of the truck, as well as some invisible shield between me and Divine.

"Good enough for you?" I retort.

He laughs again. "_Quite_." I clench my fists as he exits the truck, holding the door open. "Are you coming?"

"Do I have a choice?" His remaining smile is enough to tell me that I don't, just like I expect.

I do really hope that Yusei and I have the strength to get through the next half hour or so. Neither of us have an exceptionally high pain tolerance, unless you count oodles of emotional trauma. Plenty of that to go around.

* * *

**The Fortune Cup is beginning to wind down, but shit's about to get real. Let's hope the characters are ready for it—**

**I actually do have to go to summer school for Algebra (my report card came in yesterday) so there goes my summer, but on the upside I passed Chemistry. Not everything is terrible! **

**Hoping to get another chapter out by Sunday. I'm in one of those moods where ideas just keep coming. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	8. Destruction

**Welcome to chapter 8! Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

I don't see Aki or Yusei before the duel—I'm left with Divine as we walk out to the wings to watch.

"Are you worried for your friend?" Divine asks lightly.

"He can take care of himself," I reply.

"We'll see about that, won't we?"

I grit my teeth. I have to remind myself again that he'll eventually get his. Assholes like him usually do.

People in the crowd are yelling obscene, rude things at Aki when we reach the wings—she and Yusei ignore it all. They're locked in some silent battle through their eyes.

After years of knowing Yusei, I've learned that he can see right through people that way. He's seen a lot of things in my eyes—I wonder what he sees in hers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached the final round of the Fortune Cup!" The MC's voice rings around the stadium. "The winner of this duel—The Black Rose, Aki Izayoi or Satellite's Shooting Star, Yusei Fudo—will go on to face Jack Atlas and attempt to tear him off of his throne!"

The audience lets out a mixed reaction of commands for Yusei to put Aki down and unnecessary remarks about their opinion of Aki. I let out a strangled sigh.

"They'll be begging for forgiveness at her feet sooner or later," Divine says.

"_I_ will _not_ bow before a _forced_ ruler," is all I say.

The duel begins. Aki takes the first turn. "I summon Wall of Ivy in defense mode—I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

She's beginning cautiously. Yusei may not take the same careful steps. It depends on just what he's trying to accomplish, but he tends to fluctuate between picking at something gracefully or vehemently ripping it down.

He draws. "I summon Speed Warrior in attack mode—"

I shift uncomfortably.

"Do you know what's going to happen, Silvan?" Divine asks.

I don't answer, but my silence tells Divine that I do know.

"—due to its special effect, Speed Warrior's attack points double during the battle phase. Attack Wall of Ivy!"

"I activate Wall of Ivy's special effect," Aki interrupts. "At any point in the first two full turns after its summon, I can summon an Ivy Token onto your side of the field!"

Wall of Ivy gets destroyed by Speed Warrior, but that Ivy Token still stands. I know from my duel with Aki that its destruction means a loss of 300 life points for Yusei. 300 points of her power, smack in his face.

"I'll end my turn there, then," Yusei decides.

Aki draws. "I activate my face down card, Cursed Ivy! With this, I can bring Wall of Ivy back to the field and equip it with this card. Then I think I'll end my turn."

"This is all very unnerving," I say out loud.

"She's taking small steps until she knows she has him cornered," Divine replies. "Quite a strategy, don't you think?"

"I tribute Speed Warrior in order to summon Turret Warrior to the field," Yusei declares as a beginning to his turn. "Due to Turret Warrior's special ability, he gains the attack of Speed Warrior upon his summoning. Turret Warrior, attack Wall of Ivy!"

Wall of Ivy shatters in a burst of yellow shards, but another Ivy Token comes up onto the field. I'm unfamiliar with how it got there, but I know it's another 300 points of damage waiting to happen.

"Due to the secondary effect of Wall of Ivy, another Ivy Token is summoned onto your field—secondly, the effect of Cursed Ivy allows me to summon two more Ivy Tokens onto your side of the field!"

"Oh man," I groan.

"One was enough for you," Divine concludes.

"300 points is bad enough—300 times four is 1200. God, that's going to hurt."

"Are you concerned yet?"

I groan and run a hand through my hair.

"I end my turn."

Aki draws a card and looks at it. "I activate Seed of Deception! Due to this, I'm allowed to summon one Level 2 or below Plant-type monster from my hand—I choose Dark Verger!"

"This again," I mumble, but it's not to summon Black Rose Dragon. What is it for?

"Now I tribute Dark Verger in order to summon Rose Tentacles!"

"Rose Tentacles?" I ask. "That's a new monster."

"She just didn't want to use it on you," Divine replies flatly. The comment makes my stomach flip over.

"Rose Tentacles—destroy Turret Warrior!"

It's only 100 points in damage—still, I'm remembering the pain of the 300. I clench my fists.

"Due to the ability of Rose Tentacles, I can attack again as many times as you have Plant-type monsters on your field—since you have four, Rose Tentacles gains four extra opportunities to attack!"

"Oh my God," I groan.

Rose Tentacles swings across the field, its vines destroying the Ivy Tokens—a few of the audience members get up to run for cover. Every blow, one of the vines shoots forward and knocks Yusei back, subsequently docking the given damage. On the fourth and final attack, the vines actually wrap around his body and lift him up in the air.

I don't hear what they're saying—I know she's going to drop him, and I cover my eyes when she does. Divine laughs at me. I ignore him.

I peek open my eyes in time to watch him stagger to his feet; sometimes I really hate caring what other people feel. It must be worse for my brother, who can legitimately feel what other people feel.

"I-I think I understand now," Yusei decides. "Maybe you have been rejected and you're angry at the world for it, but there's some part of you that likes to cause pain."

Aki cocks her head to the side, like she's pondering the realization. I come to the one that Yusei may just be right, because I sometimes notice a smirk of content on her lips when someone suffers because of her.

"I summon Shield Warrior in defense mode—then I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."

"I'll begin by activating Ivy Shackles," Aki says, like Yusei never mentioned her sadistic tendencies. "As long as this card is face-up, all monsters on your field will be treated as Plant-type monsters while it's my turn."

Which means two more attacks for Aki. One to destroy Shield Warrior and another to deal direct damage. I see what Yusei's doing—in the beginning, he was jumping in head first to see what she had in store, and now he's willingly defending and taking damage so that he can pin her exactly. I really hate it when he does that.

"Rose Tentacles, destroy Shield Warrior!"

One of the vines swings and shatters Shield Warrior, knocking Yusei onto his back as it does so. I see Aki's upturned mouth grow into a full-on smile; when Evan mentioned her being sadistic, I didn't believe him at first. Now I see what he meant.

"Y-You're just proving me right," Yusei says as he staggers to his feet. "You're just proving to me that you enjoy hurting people."

Aki ignores him, but she seems taken aback. "Take your second attack, Rose Tentacles!"

"I activate my face down, Card Defense—by discarding a spell or trap in my hand, I can negate the attack and end the battle phase."

"I suppose I'll end my turn."

Yusei draws a card and brushes the dirt off of his jacket. "You can't ignore the truth for long, Aki—you'll have to accept it eventually."

"You're speaking nonsense, Yusei," Aki hisses. "Take your turn."

I watch him exhale in exasperation. "I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode—due to its special ability, I'm allowed to bring back one Level 4 or below monster from my Graveyard. I'll choose Speed Warrior!"

He's going to summon Junk Warrior—I pull nervously at the material of my jacket. I think Divine notices, but he doesn't say anything.

"Now I tune Speed Warrior with Junk Synchron in order to synchro summon Junk Warrior!"

A roll of cheers echoes through the crowd—they're happy to see Yusei make a move that will help him gain the upper hand.

"Next, I equip Junk Warrior with Junk Barrage—now, if Junk Warrior attacks and destroys a monster, you'll take damage equal to half the attacking monster's attack and defense. Junk Warrior, destroy Rose Tentacles!"

I feel an odd sort of relief when the monster goes, taking its torturous vines with it, yet I still sense that this is only the calm before the storm. If I know Yusei, he's going to salvage everything he possibly can from this match, and that might mean a lot more physical pain for him.

Yusei ends his turn, and Aki adds a card to her hand. "I summon Copy Plant!"

"_Damn_," I mumble.

"The least you can hope is that Yusei Fudo will lose with grace," Divine remarks. I don't reply.

"Due to Copy Plant's special ability, I'm now allowed to copy the level of any monster on the field—I choose Junk Warrior! Next, I activate the effect of Dark Verger from the Graveyard, allowing me to bring it back to the field!"

The crowd tenses and I grip my arm as tightly as I can.

"Now I'll tune Dark Verger with Copy Plant in order to synchro summon Black Rose Dragon!"

My mark lights up in a rush of scorching green light, like lava is creeping slowly and hotly through my veins. I sink down to my knees, watching Aki and Yusei observe their own marks, and try to focus on the continuing of the duel.

"Now I remove Wall of Ivy in order to activate Black Rose Dragon's special effect, reducing Junk Warrior's attack points to 0 until the end of this turn—Black Rose Dragon, lay waste to Junk Warrior!"

"I activate Shield Warrior's special effect from the Graveyard—by removing him from play, I can save Junk Warrior from being destroyed."

"That doesn't stop you from taking damage!"

"You're right—it doesn't. I activate my face down trap, Spirit Force! By adding a Tuner monster in my Graveyard to my hand, I can reduce the battle damage I take this turn to 0."

The only Tuner he has in his Graveyard is Junk Synchron—I can see him summoning Stardust next turn. It's probably his only chance to get through to Aki.

The blast from Black Rose Dragon tears a hole in the stands behind Yusei, sending a huge mass of people running and screaming. Others hurl obscenities at Aki, telling her that she's a damn witch that doesn't deserve to live.

Aki actually laughs a little. "I suppose they're right. I am a witch—I suppose you're right, too, Yusei. I do enjoy bringing pain to those who've driven me into solitude. I place two cards face down and end my turn."

Yusei stares back at her, his face set in repose. I wish I knew what he was thinking. "I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode—due to its special effect, I'm allowed to brink back one Level 4 or below Junk monster from my Graveyard. I choose Speed Warrior!"

"What is he trying to pull?" Divine wonders. "You know, don't you?"

"Maybe I do—maybe I don't."

Divine scowls at me.

"Next I'll tune Junk Synchron with Junk Warrior in order to synchro summon Stardust Dragon!"

My mark burns brighter. The light illuminates half of the tunnel and catches Aki and Yusei's attention.

"Wretched mark," Aki mutters, covering her sigil and seeing my fingers clenched around my own.

"You never enjoyed this," Yusei tells her, glancing over to me and catching my gaze for a few moments. "You never took pleasure in other peoples' pain, either."

"Fine. But this sign... This cursed mark is only for monsters, those beastly humans who've transcended past people. I'm one of those monsters, as you can see... But the more I invite destruction, the stronger the need to cause it becomes!" She takes her Black Rose Mask from somewhere in her coat and lifts it up into the air. People in the stands toss more insults at her. "So, I became someone that isn't me! While I wear this, I'm someone who isn't indifferent to enjoying the destruction I cause or laughing at someone else's pain—then Divine told me that I didn't need my mask. The way I am... Is fine! I don't need to think, just feel!"

Yusei's done an appropriate job getting Aki to give him her inner thoughts. Now all he has to do is use them to his advantage.

"But that's wrong—you have to think on your own," he insists.

"No—no I don't! Divine can think for me!"

"I said it before, Aki, you can't keep running from the truth!"

"I have to. I can't do anything else."

"Yes you can! There's still that person inside of you, the one that doesn't take pleasure in hurting people! There's still time to start over and save yourself!"

"Shut up and take the rest of your turn," Aki replies.

"Stardust Dragon," Yusei orders, his voice like the inside of a grave, "destroy Black Rose Dragon!"

My mark pulses, like the skin is about to break open and spill my hot blood onto the dusty ground.

With a scatter of a few petals, Black Rose Dragon is no more—I watch Aki put her mask on and come to the conclusion that things are about to get a lot worse. The audience uproars at the sight of it and Divine actually chuckles. "What a naughty girl you are, Aki."

At the end of Yusei's turn, Aki draws a card. "I activate Magic Planter! By discarding Ivy Shackles, I'm allowed to draw two cards! Next, I activate Wicked Rebirth! By paying 800 life points, I can bring Black Rose Dragon back to the field! By activating its special effect, I can destroy all other cards on the field!"

"I activate Stardust Dragon's special effect—Victim Sanctuary! I can tribute Stardust Dragon to negate the effect of a monster on the field and destroy it, then bring Stardust back at the end of the next turn!"

It's a very Yusei thing to do—I probably should've seen it coming. He's preventing any more damage from coming to the people in the stands as well as keeping Aki from digging herself into a deeper hole.

"I summon Phoenixian Seed in attack mode! Due to its special effect, I can tribute it in order to summon Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis!"

I pull myself back onto my feet. The tension in the air is unbearable and it hurts to move, but Yusei and Aki have seen me and I don't want to be a distraction anymore.

"Destroy Speed Warrior!"

It shatters into yellow pieces—due to Phoenixian Cluster's special ability, Yusei takes the piercing damage and is now down to his last 400 life points. Chunks of cement fly into the air as by-products of Aki's power. I hope Yusei knows what he's going to do next.

"I place one card face down and end my turn!"

"Due to Victim Sanctuary, Stardust Dragon is now revived from the Grave!"

"Because of Wicked Rebirth, Black Rose Dragon is as well! Due to Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis' special ability, it will also return to the field in defense mode! This triggers my face down, Overdoom Line! This increases the attack points of every monster on my field by 1000!"

It's a last ditch effort to reinforce herself before Yusei's next turn—a good last ditch effort, might I add.

"I switch Stardust Dragon into defense mode—then I'll activate Prevention Star," Yusei says. "By selecting a monster on your field, I can take its effect and use it as my own monster's, as well as preventing that monster from attacking or changing its battle position. I'll choose Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis!"

It's a smart move—Stardust can't be destroyed without coming straight back and causing Aki piercing damage.

"I place one card face down and end my turn."

I notice Aki gripping her marked arm like I've been clawing at mine.

"Not so fun, is it?" Yusei remarks.

"Be quiet!" Aki exclaims.

"Doesn't it hurt?" He asks.

Aki doesn't answer. I think that Yusei's found his point.

"Pest," Divine grumbles. "Why must he ruin everything?"

"Not so fun, _is it_?" I say mockingly. Divine glares daggers at me.

"It's time for you to change, Aki," Yusei tells her. "Your so-called 'enjoyment' you get from destroying things doesn't seem to be there anymore. Even more, hasn't your pain changed into one shared by all of us?" He looks to me when he says it, then shows her his own mark. "There are a lot of questions we all have about them—we have to think and find out about them on our own."

"What does a witch like me need to think for?" Aki hisses. "As long as Divine loves me and shows me the way, I don't need to think."

"No, Aki, you can't have someone think for you. And having someone else say they love you isn't enough, either. You need to love yourself."

"Well, that's impossible! I activate Black Rose Dragon's special effect in order to clear the field!" The declaration causes a shift in the air—Aki's hairpin falls from the top of her head and the air whips around furiously. The bottom half of her mask cracks off.

"I activate Stardust Dragon's special effect! By tributing it, I can negate your monster's effect and destroy Black Rose Dragon!"

Now Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis is free to attack; Aki scowls. "You're a _wretched_ opponent, Yusei Fudo!"

Yusei doesn't seem phased. "If that's true, then why are you crying?" In a moment of realization, everything seems to stop for Aki. If I stare close enough, I can also see tears glistening on her cheeks. "I activate Cosmic Blast—this card will inflict damage equal to Stardust Dragon's attack onto my opponent."

The rest of Aki's mask falls apart as she falls on her knees and promptly loses the duel. The crowd starts to shout in triumph, exclaiming that Aki got what she deserved. I see more tears pouring down her face as Divine crosses out of the darkness of the tunnel to her. I see her ask Yusei to help her before Divine puts his coat over Aki, says something to her, and escorts her out towards me.

I catch Yusei's eye before he goes to speak to someone in the stands, and I only have enough time to nod reassuringly at him before Aki comes close enough for me to touch her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," she whispers.

I lean close enough so that only she can hear. "No you're not."

Aki looks down. "Don't stand so close to me." I look at her, taken aback. "Your mark, Silvan. It probably hurts you to be this close."

"Oh." I hadn't noticed, but now that she's drawn attention to it I can't ignore it. "Right," I say. I fall behind them, and somehow I smile because Yusei definitely did get through to her.

"You dueled fantastically, Aki," Divine croons. "It was the best you could do, and I'm proud of you for it."

"Thank you, Divine," she murmurs.

"Would you prefer that we leave?" He asks.

"No," Aki says gently. "I want to stay for the final duel."

"Very well. You're permitted to rest until then, or as long as you want."

"Thank you."

I follow them down into the lot, where the Arcadia trucks are parked. Divine goes inside with Aki, but I stay outside of the truck until Divine comes back out.

"How long did you plan on keeping up the pretense before this?" I say thinly.

"Why, Silvan, you must've hit your head somewhere," he replies uncaringly. "You've been speaking a lot of nonsense."

"Yusei is right, though. You can't think for her."

"Watch me."

I scowl. "I'm going to go and watch the final; don't worry, I'll be back before you leave."

"I wouldn't worry about someone who can so _obviously_ bite off more than she can chew."

"Thanks for recognizing that," I mutter. I leave after that, my mark extinguishing at long last and leaving me with an exhausting heat flying out through my fingertips.

The dragons made it worse, but I don't understand why that happened. Maybe they have something to do with Yusei and Aki's marks—their glowing triggers mine, so that may explain something.

I come into the hallway and take it down towards the viewing room, then around where Yusei brought me to watch Aki's second round duel. I suppose he'll be there, since his duel with Jack next will most likely be a turbo duel.

That's when I see a couple of familiar-looking big men in business suits who see me and exchange a look with each other. "Silvan Levine?"

I stop. "..._yeeeeees_...?"

"We'd like you to come with us, please."

I can only think a bunch of different cuss words before I turn and bolt, icy fear crawling through my heated veins.

I turn a corner and barrel head first into a Sector Security officer—he catches me as I fall and pulls me back onto my feet, and then we examine each other's faces. I recognize his almost immediately, with his telltale battle scar going down the right side of his face; it's Tetsu Trudge, the Security who's been trying to arrest me and Yusei since we were teenagers.

"Hey!" He exclaims as the guys in suits catch up to me and grab both of my arms. "Levine, you should be in Satellite!"

"And you should too, but here we are," I reply sheepishly.

"This isn't your concern," one of the suited men comments.

Trudge scowls and doesn't protest; the guards pull me back and take me back down the hallway. We reach an elevator at the end, and one of the guards presses the button to the top floor.

I stare between the two of them. They look a hell of a lot like the guards that attacked me in the tunnel.

"You guys ever been to Satellite?" I ask.

They don't answer.

"_Rude_," I mumble. The elevator doors open and I'm dragged to the end of another hallway, where they throw open the double doors and let go of me, then abruptly close the doors behind me. "Rude!" I exclaim after them, and turn to see who is in the room with me.

My first perception of them is through thought—it's quiet, except for one mind garbled like Divine's, one that beats quietly like it's learned not to think, and a third that openly wonders a lot of differently superficial things. There are five people in the room, not including myself. How do I only hear three of them, especially as vaguely as I do?

"_Silvan_?"

Two of the five voices, both familiar, call at the same time. I see Yusei, which explains the first silence in the air.

The other person who called my name just so happens to be Jack Atlas—he looks just as surprised to see me as Yusei does. His mind is silent, and I know he shares Yusei's mark.

"What's she doing here?" Jack demands. He hasn't changed since I last saw him two years ago, despite being dressed differently and carrying himself like he's the ultimate authority. "I told you to leave them out of this!"

"What, your silly Satellite companions?" An official looking man at the front of the room remarks. He's the source of the garbled, static thought. There's a woman with short hair standing next to him whose thoughts are totally unfiltered. She wonders how Jack Atlas 'would ever make friends with such a tacky girl.' "I promised only if they didn't get in the way. It's merely coincidental that this girl has shown up on Zigzix's scanner."

"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about," I say, "but I have better things to do than stand around clueless. If you have anything worth saying to me, say it now or I'm leaving."

The official looking man gives a rueful smile. "Straight to the point. My name is Rex Goodwin; I'm the Director of Sector Security at the moment. I have a few questions for you about your unusual mark."

No one was there when my mark lit up... Only Yusei, Divine, and the pair of Arcadia guards. I wonder about security cameras or some other form of intrusive spyware.

My eyes dart towards Yusei, who stares at me in alarm. I get the feeling that it would be a bad idea to give this guy what he wants. "I don't know what you're talking about," I say simply.

"Please don't play dumb." It's the clown-looking man from earlier—Yeager, I think. I note the familiarity in his quiet mind. "Show us the mark."

"Oh, come on," I retort. "Even if I did have some special mark, I wouldn't show it to a circus clown."

"C-Circus clown!?"

"We've picked up a number of peculiar power readings over the last two days or so," Goodwin continues without missing a beat. "According to my attendants, you've been the center of them."

"You have the wrong girl," I laugh nervously. "If you want power, look to some other place in the room. You're pulling me into the same area with a couple of Grade A duelists. I mean, Yusei, he gets an A+ across the board. Jack Atlas, I'm a huge fan, your duel runner is super impressive and the people who built it must've been pretty fucking great; I'd give you maybe a high B or a low A in dueling and definitely a low D in personality, but that's beside the point. I'm just the average, mediocre duelist who wants to watch people duel each other for sport—way far from anything powerful. Can I do what I came here for without being dragged down two hallways and three floors up and get accused of lighting up?"

"You do an impeccable job choosing your friends, Mr. Fudo," Goodwin comments, "so full of life and opinions to express. Unfortunately, I do not have the time or the patience for your talent at stalling. Four of the five Signers have been accounted for, and yet here you are. What is your mark?"

"What mark?" I say firmly.

"She's not going to talk for you," Jack grumbles. "It's a hell of a ride just getting her to speak to you at all."

I glare across the room, wondering how neither Yusei nor I have killed him yet.

"Thank you for your _glowing_ insight, Jack. My question remains the same—what is your mark?"

I shrug lightly and stare at the ceiling.

"You shouldn't be so stubborn," Yeager retorts. "Just tell us what we want to know."

"Tell me why you're so interested in getting me to admit something that doesn't exist!"

"You must understand, Miss Levine—"

"_Silvan_," I interject. "Just Silvan, please."

"You need to understand, Silvan, that this city has a growing destiny of something quite horrendous. Your mark could perhaps help us curb it."

"Look, I'm sorry your city's in danger, but the fact remains that I can't help you."

"Perhaps _you'd_ be more persuasive," Goodwin says, turning to Jack.

Jack turns his gaze at me with a very stoic expression; I glare fiercely back, and he looks back to Goodwin. "I'd rather not."

"There's _one_ right thing you've done," I mutter.

"The mark you bear isn't one of the Crimson Dragon," Goodwin continues, "and yet it's triggered by those who have been marked by the Dragon."

"I still have less than no idea what you're talking about," I tell him.

"You're _lying,_" Yeager complains. "She's _lying_."

Goodwin rolls his eyes. "You'll be free to go if you comply."

"I've been 'complying' for the past couple of days, and it's gotten me nowhere," I retort. "If you wanted me to talk to you, maybe you should've politely requested my audience instead of dragging me up here."

Goodwin laughs easily. "You wouldn't have come."

"You're right, I wouldn't have. Either way, this meeting is legitimately useless."

There's a knock at the doors. Goodwin pressed a button and one of the guards from earlier pokes his head inside. "Sorry to intrude, Director, but the girl dropped this behind her trying to get away."

My heart sinks as the guard crosses the room and hands Goodwin my spell book. My hand flies to my back pocket—I didn't even notice it was gone. Yusei catches my eye, looking very exasperated.

"What is this?" He asks as soon as the guard is gone.

"It's uh... It belongs to my brother."

"I don't believe that answers the question," Goodwin replies, flipping through the pages. "The only thing inside are tally marks."

"Yeah, I personally don't know what they mean, but my brother disappeared a long time ago and that's the only thing I have from him." I run with the lie, hoping it sounds believable enough. I may have lost my cool, and I struggle to rein it in again.

"Very interesting. Mikage, cross reference this, will you?" He hands the book to the woman, who pulls up a holographic computer.

I hope desperately that she finds nothing. She glances up at me. "There isn't anything coming up."

Goodwin continues to flip through the pages. "_Useless_." He passes the book to Yeager, who tosses it uncaringly towards me. I have to stumble forward to catch it, and afterwards I glare daggers at them both.

"Thanks." I put it back into my back pocket, where it belongs. "Are we done here?"

Goodwin opens his mouth to answer, probably to shoot me down, and is interrupted by Jack. "I told you to let them all go—wasn't she on your list before? Turn her loose, there's nothing to gain from this conversation."

I stare at Jack, astonished that he'd actually help me. Goodwin sighs deeply. "If the _King_ so wishes."

"Simple as that, huh?" I ask. "Well, that was fun—let's never do it again." I back out of the doors and leave, walking quickly towards the elevator. I glance behind me and watch the guards by the door, then press the button to go down on the elevator. The doors slide open and Yusei suddenly slips in beside me—I didn't sense him coming. He punches the close-door button a couple of times before the door closes and he turns to me.

"Before you say anything," I tell him, "I was dragged up here against my will and I didn't notice the book fall out of my pocket."

"I'm not mad at you," he says. "That was just a little too close."

"Why were you in there?"

"I went up to ask why I'd been forced into this," he says indifferently. "According to Jack, Goodwin originally wanted to have me come to the city, but he had Jack go instead because it was the best way to lure us both here."

"So what, this was like one of those long-term deals?"

"Supposedly."

"I don't understand why my mark is so interesting," I mumble.

"I think he said it," Yusei says thinly. "Yours is triggered by mine or Aki's or even Jack's."

"Ruka has one too, doesn't she?"

Yusei blinks at me. "How do you know that?"

"I can't hear her. I've come to the conclusion that I can't hear anyone who bears your mark."

"I guess that's an accurate guessing system, then." Yusei looks at the floor. "Like I said before, Goodwin was probably interested because your mark gets triggered by mine. Like we theorized , they're probably connected in some way, and Goodwin already has this weird fascination with the one Jack, Aki, Ruka, and I bear."

"I really don't want to be part of another plot to take over the world," I groan.

"No, no, I think Goodwin might actually be trying to accomplish something good. I don't trust him, but I think he has good intentions. By the way, what do you mean 'another plot to take over the world'?"

"Did I mention? That's Divine's ultimate goal."

"_Great_. Speaking of which, how is Aki?"

"I don't really know," I answer. The elevator stops on the floor we're meant to be on, and Yusei and I step out into the hall. "I didn't see her for long after the duel. I do know you made quite the impact on her, though. I plan on talking to her as soon as I can."

"That was probably one of the most painful things I've ever been through," he states plainly.

"I couldn't watch parts of it," I admit.

He scoffs. "And you say _I_ worry too much about _you_."

"Yes, but I've never been dropped twenty feet by a vine monster, have I?"

"Point taken. I'll be all right, though. Nothing is broken. Just slightly bruised."

"I guess that's sort of a victory. You did a fantastic job getting through to her."

"But I didn't," Yusei protests, and he sounds concerned. "I only poked a hole. It's not enough the break what she's become—just to make her realize it."

"But that is enough," I tell him. "I'm going to talk to her and help it along. Realizing what she's become is the first step to her recovering from it."

"I don't know. I'm still uneasy."

"You should focus on your duel with Jack," I tell him. "It's going to be a tough one."

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to it, though. And, uh, actually... I have a request."

"Anything. What is it?"

"I'd like you not to watch," Yusei tells me, looking at his shoes. "Goodwin has all the Signers here and is planning something... He won't let any of us leave. Now that he has an eye on you, I'd like you to try to keep your distance."

"I appreciate your concern," I reply, "and because I appreciate it, I'll stay outside in the Arcadia trailer until we leave. Aki controls when we go, anyways."

"Thank you."

"Just promise me you know what you're doing."

"I can't promise you that."

"All right, fine," I retort. "In case I don't see you after your duel, expect me to show up out of the blue."

"I will." A hint of a smile pulls on one side of his mouth. "I'll see you, Silvan."

Then we split from each other—I go down the hallway towards the lot outside and he goes off towards the duel runner spaces.

I push worrying about Yusei's turbo duel with Jack to the back of my mind—like I told Divine, he can take care of himself. My only order of business now is to speak with Aki.

I go out to the Arcadia truck in the lot and push open the door. I'm the only one inside, like usual—I wonder where Divine is.

I go to the door of the chamber Divine takes Aki to and knock. "Aki? Are you in there?"

Her voice is distant, but I hear it. "Yes, I'm here. I can barely hear you, though."

"Hang on." Divine had forbidden me from going inside—he told me when Aki first went in there. I sit against the frame and pull the spell book out of my back pocket. The pages smell a little bit like powder.

"Projection spell," I mumble. "_Mo láthair aige Aistriú go dtí lucht féachana in aice._" I wait a few moments, focusing in on the silence between me and Aki, and speak again. "Is it better now?"

"Much." I can hear her clearly now, like she's standing right next to me.

"I'm sorry you lost to Yusei," I tell her.

"...it's all right. I was only unlucky."

"What he told you—"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"I can feel your uneasiness, Aki—somewhere inside, you know he's right."

She doesn't answer.

"I've only known you for three days, Aki, and you've been quite the friend to me, but here we are talking to each other through a big door." I bang on it for emphasis. "There are too many secrets, too many lies that both of us are keeping from the other. I've seen bits and pieces of your past, and I know that things have been bad for you, but you can't just trust all you have to one person."

"I've been doing that for almost three years now," she replies nervously. "Nothing is wrong with it."

"But don't you agree that thinking for ourselves must be the only way for us to solve the mysteries of our marks?"

"I don't want to think for myself. It's useless. Besides, I... I don't know how."

"But you'll have to learn eventually. I know that being on your own that way is a little bit scary, especially with what you've been through, but sometimes when you have one person doing everything for you, they end up thinking that they're protecting you from the bad things, when they end up just shutting the world out." I'm trying to convey what I want without insinuating Divine's scummy-ness, especially since Aki needs to accept herself before she can accept such a hugely rotten part of her life.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Aki asks quietly.

"No—I know it may seem like it, but if you don't see the world and experience things on your own, then you'll never grow and learn."

"How will this terrible world teach me anything?" She cries. "All they've taught me is how to hate and crave decimation."

"The world becomes different over time," I say slowly. "The fact is that humans have and always will be afraid of what they don't know. Your parents didn't deal with your powers correctly—they alienated you and attempted to control you because they were afraid. But you were afraid too, weren't you? That's why you didn't know what to do when you were left alone; you'd been left in this big world by yourself with powers you didn't know how to control and a mark that caused you nothing but trouble. I can see how Divine was your savior, but there's going to be a point where you'll need to let go of him and start going on your own. If the world won't let you in, make it. I know you have the strength to."

There's a long moment of silence before Aki says, "Silvan... How long have you known Yusei Fudo?"

I don't know if I want to answer at first, especially since Aki has been under the impression that we met recently. Then I decide that secrets kept for a long time aren't good—I'm going to have to tell her eventually. "Literally my entire life."

"That's why he tried to help you in Daimon. And why you were talking in the hallway yesterday and why he gestured to you during our duel..."

"Is it surprising?" I ask sheepishly.

"Not particularly, now that I think about it. The two of you sound very... similar."

"I've been told. Are you angry with me?"

"I can't be angry with you, Silvan, you're the only other person besides Divine who could ever possibly understand what I've been through." She sounds disgruntled, though, and I feel like she is angry because I've lied to her.

"Do you still hate him?"

"Yes. No. I... Don't know."

"Yusei's like that," I tell her. "He won't bullshit you and tell you what you want to hear—you might hate him in the end for it, but he'll always be the one to tell you what you _need_ to hear."

"So, did he honestly care or did you ask him to do what he did?"

I stare at the tile on the floor of the truck. Trucks really shouldn't have tile. "Both, actually. I told him that I was worried about you, and he told me the same. He knew that something was paining you, but he didn't know what it was. I asked him if he could try to find out what it was, and he gladly agreed to. To be totally truthful, even if he hadn't known me he probably would've at least tried to help me in Daimon. He's been like that since we were kids."

"If you've known him for so long, does that mean you're from Satellite?"

"Yeah, it does," I sigh.

"Then why are you here?" The reply sounds almost piercing, like she is actually mad at me.

"I told you," I say sheepishly. "Divine bailed me out from Sector Security and let me stay in Arcadia, and I'm staying because my brother is here."

"Then why don't you just _leave_?!"

Now she really sounds angry. I recall what I told Evan the first day we were together again. "Because if I ever leave, I'll be bringing you with me. Don't think that my coming here accidentally is going to stop me from caring about you." She doesn't say anything, so I take it as an ok to connect my words to Yusei's. "Like Yusei mentioned, these marks connect us together. Even if mine doesn't look like yours, it still glows when yours does. We're one in the same; that means I'm going to help you and Yusei's going to help you, no matter what happens."

"...maybe I could be ready to leave Arcadia someday," she says slowly, "but that day won't be anytime soon."

"That's fine—I'll be with you every step of the way. You're not going to be alone anymore, Aki, and I promise you that."

The space between us is silent, but it's a different silence than before. It's an accepted silence, like reality has settled in at long last.

The focus of the spell gets cut, but not by me. I have enough leverage to hear Aki exclaim in surprise before our connection is completely severed and the entirety of my arm—not just the mark—is glowing green. There's no pain, at least not at first, and I'm left staring at it until my eyesight starts to disappear in a swirl of endless green light.

"Silvan?" Aki yells in the distance.

"I'm here!" I exclaim back.

"My mark," she whimpers, "it hurts..."

I'm wondering why mine isn't feeling the same, when suddenly I feel a fire so hot, the green light in my eyes turns red. It feels like I'm combusting from the inside out, my organs and bones and muscle tissue melting as each second throbs by like blood under a bruise.

I squeeze my eyes shut, but the world is still red, and it hurts worse than I can describe—worse than I could possibly imagine. My mouth tastes like metal and I can't even resist when the world comes crashing down on me and unconsciousness closes me in its claws.

Even after that, I can feel the red reality biting at my heels and the black non reality grabbing me and pulling me towards what could possibly be a very slow and torturous death. It feels like someone is holding me down while I die, keeping me suspended in nothingness and refusing to let me fight when I know I can if I was only given an inch.

Just when it feels like I'm going to run out of air, I'm released and flung forward onto a red circle of light that extends into a sphere around me. I burst into what looks like a jet stream of light surrounded by an endless space of stars. I put my hand on the red outline of the sphere and a bolt of electricity runs up my glowing arm, rattling me straight to my bones.

"Silvan!"

It's Aki's voice—I anchor my head to the side and see her, floating beside me in her own translucent red sphere. Beside her is Ruka, and I know it's her because Rua's eyes don't hold the same wisdom as her.

"What's happening?" I say hoarsely, a faint echo of the fire making a split second reoccurrence.

"Yusei and Jack are dueling," Ruka answers, her voice light.

Exasperation courses through me. I guess I didn't get far away enough to heed Yusei's warning. I hadn't even realized that their duel had started.

"Look," Ruka exclaims. We pass over a gathering of people, all bowing before five other people with red engravings on their arms. "Those look like our marks."

"Five," I mumble. I suspect that the people below us are like us, in a way. We must be seeing the past. One thing bothers me, though. There are five of us here—Yusei, Jack, Aki, Ruka, and me. But my mark doesn't match any of these five people. "We're seeing the past."

"How do you know that?" Aki asks meekly. "Is this what it's like when you see the past?"

"No," I laugh. "Look at that crazy altar, and the clothing of those people—that's nothing in this era."

"I think she's right," Ruka replies. "We're seeing the past of the Signers."

Yusei has used the term before, as has Goodwin. Jill deLancebeaux, one of Aki's first opponents in the Fortune Cup, had the term on his mind. I decide that it must be the technical term for those who bear the red mark.

"Hey," I say, seeing the scenes change below us. "It's Satellite."

"Neo Domino," Ruka adds, pointing to the side where I see the city's rising buildings in the distance.

Suddenly buildings in both cities begin to crumble and fly in multiple directions due to a weird looking purple light.

"What's happening?" Aki exclaims.

The purple lights seem to be following a trail until they connect at certain points and form what looks like the shape of a spider. My heart thuds dangerously fast against my ribcage at the sight of it. For some reason, seeing the spider shape instills a fear in me so deep that I can't breathe for a good fifteen seconds. Even after that, I'm struggling to catch it.

"I-I think it's the future," I tell her. "This hasn't happened yet."

"Y-Yet?!"

A commotion comes from down on the jet stream, where I finally notice Yusei and Jack's duel runners riding along the strip of light. Stardust and Red Demons Dragon are there as well, locked in what looks like someone's battle phase. Neither dragon is destroyed, but I feel a pulse of fire course through my arm again. Someone is taking damage, and it's real.

"Silvan?" Aki asks. "What's going on?"

"Someone is... Taking damage," I reply with difficulty. "I think... It's Yusei."

"We can't hear it from here," Ruka observes.

"Maybe not," I huff. I feel around in my back pocket and find that my spell book is there, but touching it makes the burn worse. "_M-Mo láthair aige Aistriú go dtí lucht féachana in aice!_"

Without even having to focus, the sound clears out and I can suddenly hear the duel.

"What did you just do?" Ruka exclaims.

"I can tell you later," I say quickly. "Right now, I don't think we have time for backstory."

I was right, Yusei was the one to take damage, and the damage he took was real like Aki's. His life points appear to be dangerously low, and it looks like it's Jack's turn, but Yusei's just activated his face down.

"I trigger my face down, Crossline Counter! Due to this, Stardust Dragon now gains attack points equal to twice the battle damage I just took, as well as forcing Red Demons Dragon to attack again!"

For some reason, Jack's dragon remains on the field despite being outmatched. Jack still takes the very real battle damage, leaving him with 800 life points—it's still twice what Yusei has, which definitely isn't good.

"I activate the Speed Spell–Overboost!" Jack tosses out the card, an almost smug hint of a smirk pulling at one corner of his mouth. "This card will increase my Speed Counters by 4! Next, I activate the Speed Spell–End of the Storm! By paying 10 of my 11 Speed Counters, I can destroy every monster on the field and inflict 300 points of damage to my opponent per monster destroyed!"

"I activate Stardust Dragon's special ability in order to negate the activation of your card."

"That was a good move, right?" Aki asks. "Why does he look so upset?"

"Because Jack wanted him to play Victim Sanctuary," I groan.

"I activate Sneak Exploder!" Jack declares, and I turn to Aki.

"He was planning on it—that card he plays will inflict 500 points of damage to Yusei for every monster Jack controls next turn." I remember it from a long time ago, when Jack, Yusei, and I were actually friends. "If Yusei didn't activate Victim Sanctuary, he'd lose. If he did, Jack would activate that card to make him lose."

"I hope he has some trick," Aki groans.

I'm usually pretty sure about these things, and Yusei still has a few face downs on his field, but I tell her, "Me too."

"Now I'll end my turn!"

Stardust Dragon suddenly reappears like clockwork, and Yusei flips a card. "I activate Meteor Stream—this card will inflict you 1000 points of damage whenever a monster is special summoned on its same turn!"

"I trigger Crimson Fire! Due to the effects of this card, Meteor Stream is negated and you take twice the damage I was meant to take!"

"I'll activate Shining Silver Force! Not only will this card negate and destroy Crimson Fire, but it also destroys all other traps and spells on the field—including Sneak Exploder!"

I breathe a sigh of relief. My arm throbs in response. "Clever boy."

"I'll begin my turn now by activating the Speed Spell–Final Attack! By paying 5 Speed Counters, I can equip it to Stardust Dragon and double his attack! Maybe I can't attack you directly, but attacking your dragon will still grant me what I need to win this duel!"

Due to the attack, Jack loses the last of his life points and my arm feels like it's bursting into hot white flames. The spell breaks and a wind bursts the red bubble open, tossing me down towards the jet stream.

Aki is screaming as I fall, and I suddenly wake up on the floor inside of the truck. My hands are pressed to the floor and I've ripped my jacket free of my shoulders. My lips are dry and taste like blood; I suspect that I've bitten through one of them. My mark isn't glowing, but I can feel that it was not too long ago.

"Silvan?!" Aki calls from far away. "Silvan!"

The door jerks open and hits me in the side. I roll over and blink at the ceiling. "Uh. Ow."

"Sorry!" Aki pulls me up off of the floor and locks eyes with me. "Did... Did we just have the same dream?"

I open and close my mouth, searching for a reply, when I break free of her grasp and go to crack open the door of the truck. Ear splitting cheers come from every corner of everywhere, and I can see Yusei's name suspended in holographics over the stadium. "I-I don't think it was a dream."

* * *

**Now that the Fortune Cup is over, the real story should begin. In the next couple of chapters, things should speed up considerably—some new characters will be introduced and a lot of things will be revealed. I do love hearing from you guys (especially DLS because he frequently reviews and it makes me quite happy) and I hope you all continue to enjoy what I have coming next~!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	9. Complications

**Hello! Next chapter. Let's do it.**

* * *

I wake in the middle of the night, shivering from cold and illuminated in the light of my mark.

It glows like a candle, flickering behind my closed eyelids. It's a huge test of will to not open my eyes, but I refuse to do it because I know that opening my eyes even a little will prevent me from going back to sleep.

The throb is gradual and barely there, but I feel it ebbing underneath the surface of my skin like some carnivorous insect crawling upon its prey. I shift in the darkness of my closed eyes and move my hand over where I know the mark lies, attempting to block the glow even a little.

The pain is so minimal that I find it easy to ignore, and the glow becomes some unknown problem in the corner of my mind. I gradually fall back into sleep's sweet embrace... Until the nightmares come.

I think that the worst thing about my dreams is that they're never dreams or nightmares. Maybe they seem like it because of their caliber and content, but they're always visions of the past. Like I'm wading through my own memories. This nightmare is strange and dark, with an ominous air falling on top of me. It doesn't strike me as familiar, which is another oddity—my dreaming visions are always things I've envisioned before.

I see a great dragon the color of lava branch across the sky, followed by five beams of multicolored light. My mark pulses like a heartbeat—I don't know if it's only in the dream or in real life, too.

Huge land masses rise in front of the dragons, until they too form into dark shapes of monstrous beings. I see what looks like a monkey, a bird, a lizard, a whale, a giant of some kind, and a spider. It reminds me of the spider shape I saw tearing across Satellite.

The molten dragon lets out a primal roar and the five beams of light transform into giant dragons—I look at them, not recognizing what I'm seeing until one of the brighter lights becomes Stardust Dragon. A second bright light morphs into Red Demons Dragon. The one beside it transforms to Black Rose Dragon. I don't recognize the two other dragons, one plated with gold and the other donning jeweled fairy wings, but I know that they somehow have to do with the Signers.

Stardust crashes directly into the column of darkness shaped like the giant, sending shards of light everywhere. My mark aches, and a red light suddenly appears behind me. I don't know where it's coming from, but it envelops me and sends me stumbling into an entirely different vision.

It's also dark in this place, but less ominous. It looks sort of like a parking garage; my body begins to materialize, different from the last vision when I was an invisible entity observing an event. Here, I can walk and move my limbs just like real life.

I walk up the inclimb inside of the structure, where there seems to be a commotion in the upper level. Once I get close enough to see a ring of blue fire, my mark explodes into a bright green light show. I approach slowly, conscious of the worsening burn across my left limb, and the fire suddenly extinguishes. Beyond it, I recognize Yusei, kneeling beside a young man in strange clothing. A girl my age with a camera hanging around her neck suddenly crosses the lot, examining them both.

They're saying some things to each other before the garage suddenly lights up, and I suspect that Sector Security has found their way here. Yusei gets up and dashes away—he's well practiced in the art of escaping the cops. He's almost out of sight when he sees me and stops.

He mouths my name questioningly, and for a moment I wonder if I'm not envisioning things—if, somehow, I'm actually present. It can't just be a dream, because I never dream. Dreams aren't this realistic.

He takes a few steps in my direction before my mark pulses again and bursts me into another vision. This one is very hazy, but I recognize Aki tossing and turning in her own bed. Her mark is alight and turns the blankets red; I watch her face twist, and I can somehow feel the discomfort and disarray in the dragging ache of her own sigil. It seems to match mine, each time she tosses making me instinctively want to do the same.

Aki suddenly jolts up in her bed, like she's come fresh out of a nightmare. "Silvan?"

I'm confused for a second, until I realize that someone is actually calling my name, shaking me awake.

The vision disseminates and I find myself staring at the left wall of my room. I roll over and yawn. "Aki? What time is it?"

"Six or seven. I couldn't sleep any more—I thought you might be having the same problem..."

I heave myself up off of my back and stretch my arms over my head. "Actually, thanks for waking me. I was having some crazy visions and my mark was bothering me."

"Mine was, too. I had this weird feeling that one of us was in danger."

"Interesting that you mentioned that," I tell her. "I had a similar feeling—I think I might've even seen where it stemmed from. The thing about my dreams is that they're never dreams; they're always visions. Usually visions I've seen before, but for some reason they weren't the same this time."

Aki leans forward, brushing her bangs away from her face. I don't think she wears her hairpin when she sleeps. "Like what?"

"Well, the first thing I saw looked like a battleground. Everything was dark and there were a bunch dragons fighting these dark shadowy figures shaped like animals. The crazy thing was that Stardust, Red Demons, and Black Rose Dragon were all among the dragons fighting the monsters."

"That's insane..."

"It gets stranger. It changed to this parking garage, and it was one of those visions I could move around in like I was actually there. Weirdly enough, I think I may have been. There was this ring of fire—I had the sense that a duel may have been going on beyond it—but when it extinguished, Security was there and I saw Yusei running. Then he saw me too."

"Well, that _could've_ been a dream," Aki says reassuringly. "Dream people can typically see each other."

"But I don't think it was," I say flatly. "It was too realistic, and that's where the feeling we both had was from. Besides, I never have dreams and I don't think it's a thing to just start randomly having them."

"Well, you never know." I can tell she's trying to look to the better, more explainable theory, but I don't think she believes it either.

I sigh as I push the sheets away from my legs. "I don't think I'll be going back to sleep."

"Me neither."

"Is anyone else awake yet?"

"If Divine is, I haven't seen him yet."

I pause. "So, what would you like to do until the rest of the world wakes?"

A moment passes before Aki shakes her pixie hair out of her eyes. "I'll be right back—I'm going to get dressed. I have an idea."

"All right," I say. Aki jumps up and goes out of the door, leaving me alone. I don't see the point in changing clothes, since I wear the same jeans and crop top every day. I pull myself out of bed and untwist the straps on my shirt, running a hand through my hair. I'm thinking of my vision of Yusei while I'm fastening my knee pads.

Is it really possible for me to have been there? I won't believe that it was a dream—I felt the heat of the flames, the sharp jump in temperature of my mark. I could smell the air, feel the breeze; there isn't any possible way a dream could be so realistic.

Aki comes back inside, rolling her bangs into her hairpin while I secure the straps on my boots and pull my jacket on over my bare arms. "Are you ready?" she asks.

"Yes," I say, taking the spell book out from my pillowcase. Keeping it out in plain sight isn't something I want to do. "Where are we going?"

"I'll show you." I follow Aki out the door and to the elevator, but we stop on the second floor rather than the first. I want to ask her where we're going, but I think that the point is for me not to know.

She pushes open a door at the end of the westernmost corridor, which leads into an extraordinarily clean room that I can only guess is something of a kitchen.

The walls are perfectly white, every cabinet and cupboard is made of well-kept wood, and the appliances and other cooking materials I see are all polished steel.

The first thing I say is, "I didn't know it was possible to keep a room so clean."

"Divine says that cleanliness is next to godliness, especially when it comes to things you eat. The cleaner the area, the better it is."

Well... At least I can't accuse Divine of poisoning any of his charges. Of all the things he could not be—he's a liar, a manipulator, and one hell of a good actor, but at least he makes sure that no one gets sick. _Lovely_.

"So, why are we in here?" I ask.

"Breakfast," Aki answers lightly. "My idea was that we come get breakfast and go out to eat it in the garden. Sort of like a picnic."

"Ah, I see."

"What we mostly keep are fruits, dairy products, trail mix—you know, healthy things."

"More of Divine's godliness theory?"

"Mmhm. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," I reply.

Aki opens a steel refrigerator and picks out a small container of honey flavored yogurt, a stick of orange cheese, and a banana. I peer over her shoulder. "Looking for something specific?" she asks.

"Apples," I mumble. Aki opens a clear drawer near the bottom of the door, where there are bags of different fruits grouped together.

"Is there something particularly special about apples?" Aki tilts her head to the side after seeing me pick three apples from the drawer.

"Somewhat," I say. "I used to hate going to the doctor as a kid. My caretaker would frequently use the expression 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away,' so I've been eating them pretty religiously ever since."

"That's cute," Aki comments, smiling a little. "There's a lot more in there—is there anything else you might want?"

"I'm all right," I say sheepishly.

"Just in case," she mumbles, maneuvering around me and taking a few other fruits out of the drawer. Then she closes it, shuts the fridge, and I follow her back out into the hallway and down the elevator.

We come outside and the sky is brightening with the rising sun—it feels good and warm when it touches the top of my head. Aki zigzags into the garden with her arms full of food, towards the roses I put into bloom not long ago. The path cuts off on the other side and the roses fall back into a tangle of vines above our heads; they're twisted just expertly enough to let light in over a little wooden bench.

I whistle. "You keep amazing me every day, Aki."

Her cheeks turn slightly pink. "I-I had a little help from Divine on this one. I couldn't get the vines to grow the way I wanted them to."

"I didn't know Divine was into gardening," I tell her dully.

"Oh, he isn't. He bent them as they grew."

"What, like with telekinesis?"

"Yes, I suppose. It worked quite nicely." She sits on the bench and motions for me to do the same.

I bite a chunk out of one of my apples. It's hard and crunches nicely, unlike most of the ones I've had before that are slightly soft to the touch. "It's going to be a nice day today."

"It is, isn't it?" She picks at the cheese, pulling it into long orange strings. "I wonder what's going to happen, now that the Fortune Cup is over."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Divine told me that winning the Fortune Cup would be Arcadia's way of getting out into the public and stopping Yliaster. Since I lost... I don't know what's going to happen now."

I finish chewing before I answer. "Well, I expect Divine will go back to the drawing board. He probably has a plan B or something."

"I'm supposed to train more with my powers today," Aki comments, peeling her banana. "I wonder if he'll have you do the same."

"What kind of things do you do?"

"He might have you start with the more simple things like moving objects or whipping up the air a little; my exercises are a little advanced."

I put an apple core down on the dirt ground and bite out a piece of the second one. "Like?"

"Breaking up the ground, blowing strong winds... Stuff like that."

"Sounds easy to me," I say. "I did start an earthquake and shatter a bunch of windows. I don't see why I can't blow a little wind."

"Don't tell Divine that," Aki laughs. "He'll give you something really difficult."

I frown. "Is he a strict teacher?"

"Sometimes. He's very patient, though, so it's a good balance."

Something tells me that Divine wouldn't be so patient with me. He doesn't need to keep me satisfied, he just needs to keep me here and under a microscope. Having him get me to use my power might not be the best idea, but there's no telling what he'd do to me if I didn't listen. I'll probably just have to do what he says.

"Breathe, Silvan," Aki giggles; I realize that I haven't really paused between taking bites of my second apple.

I swallow and put the second core on the ground beside the first one. "Sorry."

"Hey, Silvan?" Aki asks.

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell me what Satellite is like?"

I roll the third apple around in my hands and take a relatively small bite. "It's... Very different. The first thing I noticed when I came to Neo Domino was how high morale was. In Satellite, most of the populace is low and poor and they don't come out much. There's a lot of crime, and everything is worth very little money. We're super behind in technology, since it's the most expensive thing sold."

"That doesn't sound good," Aki mumbles.

"Sometimes it was really depressing. That's why I'm a little more than glad that Yusei won the Fortune Cup—everyone kind of looked up to him. City people are constantly making us feel like we're an island of confessed criminals when we're mostly just unlucky people trying to keep living. A Satellite winning a big dueling tournament might help convince them that they're more than what people make them out to be."

"I understand."

"Other days, though," I say, because she seems a little downcast now, "it was nice just having a little group of people in such a small place. I'd get up in the morning and go out to the junkyards with a couple of my roommates and we'd grab whatever looked useful. We'd take it back to the subway where we lived and sift through it, fixing whatever needed a little help... Then I'd help Yusei work on his duel runner and we'd spend most of the rest of our day there... I'm not going to say I'm ungrateful for all the times I had in Satellite, because I had a lot of good times."

Her face begins to lose its unhappiness—I have to wonder what's going on inside her head. It's times like these when I want to read her so badly that it hurts, and it frustrates me that I can't.

"I'm glad I've been to both places. I wish Daedalus was finished so people could cross freely, though."

"Daedalus? What's that?"

I bite down to the core of my last apple. "A long time ago, there was this guy in Satellite who started building this bridge. He planned on connecting Satellite to Neo Domino, but Sector Security went after him after he'd built it maybe fifteen feet out over the sound. He jumped the bridge and was never seen again, but a lot of Satellites still hope that someone will someday continue to built it over."

"What a brave man," Aki says.

"We all like to think so." I set my last core on the dusty ground, making a mental note to gather them when we leave the garden. "Mind if I see what else you picked up?" Aki hands me a plastic bag full of different fruits, most that I've never seen before. I pick one out that's the size of an apple—only rounder and colored a gradual yellow-orange—and soft with a thin natural fuzz grown over the skin. She watches me as I take a tentative bite out of it. The flavor is syrupy sweet and crisp. "Whoa. Where has this been all my life?"

She tilts her head curiously to the side. "You've never had a peach before?"

"I've never had a lot of things before," I admit. "Satellite gets a lot of limited cargo. Food is cheap, but we get really simple, easy stuff. Apples, oranges, bananas, milk, cheese, sliced bread, baking mixes, processed meats, instant ramen... You know. Packaged stuff that won't necessarily rot on the way over and can be eaten the day it's purchased."

"Wow. I never really thought about how Satellites lived until now, I guess."

"That's common," I remark. "I'd love to say that we don't think about how city people live, but that's sort of a lie."

"Part of me wants to see Satellite," Aki decides, "now that I've heard two sides of the story."

"It's a great place if you know how to handle it. It's just... Small."

"_Oh._"

"Yep. Ideas are small, opportunities are small, living space is small..." I pause and stare at my peach. "This city is way too big to accommodate a small person like me."

"Not necessarily. You just need to adjust."

"I guess so. What was your home like before you left it?"

"Big," Aki sighs. "My father was a senator, so we had a big house with lots of space and money. He didn't really have the time to spend with me, though."

"Ah, the constrains of politics," I say as sarcastically as I can muster. "It's basically a bunch of stubborn old white guys sitting in a room and refusing to agree with each other."

"Yeah, well, that took up most of his time and I never got to see him. Then when he gave me my first deck, we had my very first duel and my powers suddenly appeared."

"I saw that in a vision," I mumble. I only asked what her home was like, but I suppose I'm getting her backstory. That may be even better.

"Not my favorite memory," she states. "Anyways, after that, my parents sent me to different boarding schools hoping that they could teach me to control my power, but I just ended up hurting more people. I went back to my house one night and I saw that my parents were actually happy without me—so I dropped out of the boarding school and ran away from home. That's when I started street dueling as the Black Rose Witch."

"And Divine found you?" I guess.

"And Divine found me," she confirms. "He brought me back to Arcadia and promised that I'd be safe, and I've been here ever since."

"How long ago was that?"

"It's going to be four years next month."

"That's a long time to be away from home..."

"This is my home now," Aki reminds me. I nod repeatedly to show I understand. "How about you? What's your story?"

"My story," I say flatly. "Buckle up, because it's a wild ride. I was Satellite-born like most everyone else there, and my parents were pretty much nowhere to be found. This nice woman named Martha took me and a bunch of other kids in and raised us as her own, so I guess she's like my mother. She raised Yusei, too, which is sort of how we originally knew each other. I had my first vision when I was seven, and I saw an explosion that separated Satellite from Neo Domino. At the time, the only people who knew about my visions were Yusei and my brother. Then my brother disappeared spontaneously when I was ten, and my mark appeared. It was mine and Yusei's secret for a very long time. When we were teenagers, we started this duel gang with a few of our friends from Martha's orphanage and other places in Satellite. They were the next people to know about my mark and my visions."

"What's a duel gang?" Aki asks.

"It's sort of like street dueling. Just a bit more dangerous. We were basically this group of teenagers who went around and liberated parts of Satellite that were controlled by other groups that were into crime. Our goal was to free everyone and make their lives more than just satisfying."

"That sounds... Oddly reassuring."

"It was, for a while," I tell her. "The leader of our group became obsessed with completely freeing Satellite. He went after Sector Security, killed an officer, and was arrested. That broke up our group—we all pretty much went our separate ways, other than me and Yusei. We'd been trying to build a duel runner and we were close to finishing it, so we moved in with some other friends of ours and continued it there."

"I feel like your story is about to take a wrong turn," Aki muses.

"Because it is," I sigh. "A year or so after the breakup of our gang, one of our old friends came and stole the duel runner we built in order to come here and become a big shot turbo duelist."

"That's... Cruel."

"You've probably heard of him," I laugh. I adopt an MC-ish voice. "The _Master_ of Faster, the _Sultan_ of Speed, the _King_ of Turbo Duels, _Jaaaaack Atlaaaaaas_!"

"No way," Aki marvels. "You were friends with Jack Atlas?"

"Unfortunately," I grumble. "The guy's a manipulative asshole with no respect for anyone else's hard work. After he took the duel runner, Yusei decided he wanted to go after him and settle the score. So we started building two separate duel runners, his and mine, because I was planning on tagging along and looking for Evan. Security started getting on us about it, so Yusei ended up going without me. Three months later, some big guys in suits came and kidnapped my friends, so I left Satellite and here I am."

"I guess you have been through quite a lot."

"We both have," I reply. "The universe is such a _slut_, screwing everyone over the way it does."

Aki laughs a little. "It's weird how accurate that is."

"Yep," I say, my lips popping on the 'p.'

"Someone's coming," she tells me suddenly.

I pause, listening to the quiet sounds of the morning, and reach out. It takes me some time to detect someone coming, but the feeling settles over me and I relax. "It's just Evan."

I say his name and he suddenly appears around one of the rose bushes like I've summoned him. "What are you two doing out here?"

"We couldn't get back to sleep," I tell him. "So we had breakfast out here."

"All right. Divine's been looking everywhere for Aki."

"I'd better go see what he needs," Aki tells me, standing and collecting the remnants of her breakfast. "Find me in a little while?"

"Sure," I say.

When she's gone, Evan gives me a curious stare. "She _definitely_ likes you."

"Good. That's what I've been hoping for. How are you this morning?"

"Tired. I was up last night reading."

"Have you found anything else?" I ask him.

"Nothing I don't already know," he grumbles, "and I'm almost through everything I have."

"Safe to say that we've gotten all we can get from your books," I reply. I pull the spell book from my back pocket. "I can read this, I can cast the spells, I think it's our only lead from here."

"Maybe you're right. I still feel like there's something I'm jumping right over, though."

"You're just being paranoid. We'll find something when we find it."

Evan exhales deeply.

"I do have one question," I say tentatively. "What do you know about Signers?"

"Signers?"

"Yeah. I'm just wondering if you've come across anything having to do with them."

"The term sounds pretty familiar. I'm thinking they have something to do with the Nazca Lines."

"Those are... In Peru, right?" That's where Yusei mentioned his mark was from. Something tells me that we're on the right track.

"Yes—I read about a legend involving the Nazca Lines that I think mentioned Signers."

"Would you look for it a little later so I can see it?" I ask.

"Sure." He sits beside me on the bench. "I didn't see you yesterday. How was the Fortune Cup?"

"Yusei won it," I tell him lightly. Then I delve into the experience above the jet stream and the nightmares I had last night, including my vision of the parking garage. He listens steadily, nodding as I go.

I note that Evan has a very active imagination, because as I'm explaining he's trying to picture it and doing a fairly accurate job. "Sounds like we have some danger coming on the horizon."

"Yeah. I'm thinking that we need to get out of here soon."

"How soon is soon?" he asks quietly.

"I don't know. Within two weeks, maybe."

"Do you think that'll be enough time to get Aki to come, too?"

I stare at the peach I've been fiddling with, still with only a few bites taken out of it. "She's on her way. Two weeks will have to be enough."

Evan sighs and stares off at nothing. "I guess that's fair."

"By the way, Evan, Yusei brought something to my attention yesterday." I remember the point he made in the hall. "Why haven't you left already?"

"S'cuse me?"

"I don't think there's anything holding you here," I elucidate. "Why haven't you made a run for it already?"

"Don't you think I've tried?" he mumbles.

"I guess I have, but why haven't you succeeded?"

He opens his mouth, then closes it like he's decided against speaking.

"What is it?" I ask.

Evan adopts a conflicted expression. His mind beats uneasily.

"Evan!" I exclaim. "What are you hiding from me?"

"Do me a favor—watch my mind for a little bit." He sounds pained.

"What does this—"

"Just do it, all right?"

I reach out and linger around his thoughts, wondering what the problem is. I watch him sift through memories, back in time to somewhere close to the very beginning.

Suddenly my mark lights up and a pain I haven't felt in a while winds itself around me and restricts my senses to the vision. I don't have to press my hands to my head to suppress the pressure—the pain is lower on the scale now than things I've felt in the past couple of days.

I see the Arcadia building in the dark, and a small shadow darting past the neatly trimmed hedges. I think that these are the younger days of the Arcadia Movement, because there's a lack of a garden and the duel runner course doesn't seem to exist.

The shadow trips along in the dark, trying its hardest to stay unseen, when it suddenly it falls into a second, larger shadow. My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I see Evan as I remember him before he disappeared from Satellite. He looks small and afraid. The second shadow doesn't sharpen, but I know that it's Divine. The memory's fear of him is so strong that I feel the intensity of the pain increase.

"Going somewhere?" Divine asks. Evan tries to run the other way and, for a moment, it seems like he might get away. Suddenly his body flies into the air and comes sailing back towards the Arcadia Building. A sharp crack echoes in the air when his body lands, and Divine walks nonchalantly over and picks him out of the dirt. "We'll just have to fix your rebellious tendencies, won't we?"

Parts of the vision begin to crackle and break off, fizzling like it's about to end. My heart is pounding, and I can't stop worrying about the cracking noise. Is he all right? Divine could've easily plucked my brother off of the ground and dragged him back into Arcadia without the use of telekinesis. What was the use in tossing him like a rag doll?

Suddenly another vision comes on, stronger than the first.

It's somewhere inside Arcadia, where Divine is standing with his assistant Seria. However, she isn't wearing the robes I've seen her in before. It's definitely in the past.

Evan is laying on a cot, his left leg in a cast. I cringe at the sight of it, and I can almost feel a pain in my own leg. He appears to be unconscious; Divine is examining something on a computer.

"Isn't it a bit cruel to do such a thing?" Seria says gently. "He's only a boy."

"Wrong—he's the key to the head of our revolution. As long as he's here, his sister Silvan will have a reason to come and to stay."

"How do you know she cares that much? Or that she even exists?"

"Why would he have agreed to take her place if she didn't exist?" Divine scoffs. "I've never met a set of twins who didn't care at least a little about each other. I guarantee that he'll draw her here. Until that day, he must stay."

"Yes, but," Seria objects, "is breaking the boy's leg and installing a _lightning rod_ in it the most appropriate way to keep him present?"

A... _What_?!

"It's the only appropriate way; he'd have to be watched day and night otherwise to make sure he doesn't attempt to escape again."

"Say this goes well for you and his sister actually does come here and he tells her about it. What'll you do when she looks for a way to deactivate it?"

"Simple," Divine tells her, like he's the smartest person to walk the earth. "The rod works on a sensor that will activate when he gets a certain distance away from the building. It will also activate upon certain vocal vibrations."

"Vocal vibrations, sir?"

"When a person speaks, the vibrations from their voice can be felt vaguely in their bones. The sensor has been programmed to activate when certain vibrations are felt, most specifically—"

"I get it, I get it," Seria interrupts. "If he says anything about it, he gets shocked. You're an evil genius. I still think that this is pretty cruel."

"The world is cruel," Divine answers. "It's only the natural order of things to teach people about it before cruelty is forced upon them."

"That entire sentence was the most _ironic_ thing I have ever heard," Seria laughs flatly. "This is going to backfire on you sooner or later, Divine."

"Quite doubtful. I've thought of _everything_."

Seria doesn't answer, and the vision begins to fizzle out again. I brace myself for a third memory, but nothing comes. The fire lessens and my eyes focus back on the garden and Evan pulling awkwardly at his pant leg.

I want to hit something. I want to hit Divine for doing what he did, but I also want to hit my brother for withholding some really fucking important information from me. "Why didn't you mention this _earlier_," I say between my teeth.

He gives me a flat look.

"No, Evan—_Fuck_, you know what I mean! You could've tried to mention something or trigger something to tell me this! Now I have a totally new problem on my mind! What did you expect us to do when we were planning to get out of here?"

"It's my problem, I was planning on fixing it," he says sheepishly.

"How?" I snap. His mind puts me under the impression that he never planned on escaping in the first place. He didn't even plan on me actually coming here. "Were you going to rip yourself open and pull the damn thing out? This is _serious_!"

"I know it's serious, just calm down..."

"I _am_ calm! You can't take matters into your own hands like this! Not when something is this serious!" I get up from the bench, make a grab for my apple cores, and stalk towards the Arcadia building. I toss them in a trash receptacle near the entrance.

"Silvan! Silvan, wait! Where are you going?"

"To do _something_!" My blood is boiling. I really wish my brother wasn't so _dense_—he could've found _some_ way to tell me before. Even if he'd have had to write it down, he could've found a way.

Though, this is even more proof that we're definitely siblings. It's just like me to be impulsive and try to take something into my own hands. He's doing the same thing, only on a way larger scale.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Evan shouts.

"Yes!" I tell him loudly. Divine wouldn't dare tell me up front what he did to Evan. Maybe he's not as duplicitous with me as he is with Aki, but he still lies to my face and I know it. The next best thing would be his assistant—she seemed against it, and I suspect that she'll help me if I somehow persuade her. I go into the building and jog to the elevator, going up a few floors to Divine's office. I almost run smack into Aki on the way out.

"Silvan!" She exclaims. "I was just going to come look for you!"

"I'll talk with you in a sec," I tell her. "Do you know where Divine's assistant is? It's important."

"Seria?" Aki looks bewildered. "I think she's with Divine in his office."

"Thanks. Where can I meet you?"

"Down in the arena. We're going to be training today."

"Sounds good. I'll see you there." I rush past her and force open the door to Divine's office, where I see him stop talking completely and change his expression as I come into view.

"Silvan, Aki was just looking for you," he says smoothly. "Why don't you join her in the arena?"

"How about instead of me, _you_ go join Aki and I stay here to have a little chat with your assistant?"

Seria turns and stares at me curiously. Divine narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to reply—my mark sends off a shower of sparks and the window behind his desk suddenly shatters. Seria covers her head with her arms to shield herself from broken glass. Her mouth drops open as she stares at the gaping window.

"_Please_ don't argue with me," I say through my teeth, "because I will _gladly_ break your desk, too."

Divine gives me a sharp glare and stalks out of the room. The light of my mark fizzles and goes out. Seria stares at me. I expect that I've persuaded her nicely.

"Tell me about the rod Divine put in Evan's leg," I demand.

Seria blinks, taken by surprise. "How did you—"

"Divine might be an 'evil genius,' but he definitely hasn't thought of everything. _Tell me about the rod_."

Seria exhales, glances around like she's making sure no one's watching, and looks back at me. "It's designed to send a series of electric shocks through the tibial artery that will gradually increase in strength as distance from the designed location increases. Divine set it to a medium shock as soon as he gets within a 200-yard radius of the building. Any farther, and they're designed to increase by five watts per yard until they're strong enough to cause heart failure."

"How do I shut it off?"

"Deactivating the sensor would be the easiest way..."

"You sound unsure. Why are you unsure?"

"He buried the trigger somewhere," Seria admits. "I never knew where. All I know is that it's somewhere off of the grounds so that Evan can't get to it without dying."

"Stupid bastard," I mumble. "Is there a second way to stop it? Could I call a doctor and have them take it out?"

"Not unless the sensor is turned off. Any attempts to dislodge it would also activate the trigger."

"_Dammit_. So I'll have to look for the trigger somewhere."

"Don't know how you're going to do that," Seria tells me flatly. "Divine never made a map, a marker, or anything. I doubt he even remembers where he hid it."

I kick a shard of glass across the room. "That memory is somewhere in his mind. I'll just have to get it out somehow. Thanks, you've been helpful."

"Divine always said you were unique in your abilities," she muses. "I don't think that he realized just what a unique persona you are."

"You don't like him much, do you?" I ask, scanning the contents of her thoughts.

"Not sure if I ever have. I grew up with Divine, though, and it was my mother's dying wish to have me be his friend when he didn't have anyone else. I regret making that promise; he's changed from the guy I used to know."

"I don't know who he was, but I can't say that I want to find out."

"He was a good man at one point. Unfortunately, those days are done. All I can ask is that you give him hell."

"_So_ ahead of you," I remark. "Thank you again." I move out of the room and go around the corner, where Evan is standing by the elevator. I put my hand on his shoulder. "I don't know how, but I'm going to turn that damn thing off. I'm going to find a way to get into Divine's head and see where it is so that we can all get out of here together."

Evan doesn't answer me—he just sort of watches me go back into the elevator, down to the sub level where I once dueled Aki.

I know what he's thinking now, and I don't like it. No one knows where Divine's sensor is hidden, and so Evan never planned on leaving in the first place—he planned on me never coming here at all, and he was going to live with that. Stupid impulsive bloodline.

Downstairs in the sub level, I ignore the biting cold and make my way down to the arena. Aki is already there, with a dummy seated in front of her and Black Rose Dragon swinging its huge tail back and forth as it waits for a command.

"Silvan!" Aki calls cheerfully, unaware of my deathly mood.

I slap on a smile, the kind of overly sweet smile that I use to fool my friends. It's gotten progressively better over the years—the only person who can still see through it is Yusei. "Hey Aki; what are you doing?"

"We're training my dueling power again," she replies.

"It must be sharpened day by day, like a sword," Divine says from where he stands on the side of the arena. "We must do the same with you, Silvan."

"I can't cause real battle damage," I state.

"Well, why not?"

"Because _I don't want to,_" I say, enunciating all of my consonants.

Divine ponders it. "Very well—you'll practice the things that you can do outside of duels."

I smirk, thinking of the window. "Like what?"

"Aki, withdraw Black Rose Dragon," he commands. Aki takes the card from its activation slot and it disappears in a gust of sweet-smelling red petals. "Come beside me." She obediently crosses the room and stands beside him, watching like a puppy for his next command. "_Silvan_," he says smoothly, "I would like you to break _anything_ and _everything_ you can in this room."

"Oh, but Divine," I croon, "didn't you already fix the windows a couple days ago?"

"They can be fixed again," he tells me. His tone has lost its deep harshness and moved to a mellow request like someone trying to calm a dangerous animal—I wonder if he's afraid of me. _Boy,_ would I love it if he were.

"Just give me a moment," I say. I've been sort of pondering the sparks my mark sometimes gives off. I realized not long ago that the spontaneous bursts of energy I can give off are usually when I'm bursting with emotion. I can trigger my mark without a spell, but only with sudden outpours of raw emotion.

I guess I understand what Divine meant when he told Aki to feel instead of think, because feeling triggers her powers as well. The only catch is that it's necessary to feel and to think so that the damage can be kept under control.

I take a breath and remember how furious I am at Divine for breaking my brother's leg and putting a lightning rod in it. I think about Evan convincing himself that he can take matters into his own hands, and how pissed I am at him for not telling me sooner that his life is constantly in danger.

My mark begins to furiously blister, sending off multiple waterfalls of green sparks before the ground starts cracking into huge pieces and the moisture in the air begins to pop from a sudden rise in temperature. If I concentrate, I can feel the molecules speeding up and crashing into each other and each individual hairline fracture running along the earth until the pressure gets so intense that the ground finally has to snap. I feel my heart beating and the blood running through my veins, Divine's messed up radio signal thoughts and the whisper of Aki's hair as it whips around in the sudden wind. I feel the building's very foundation swinging around and begging for me to let it crash to the ground.

The window in the viewing room shatters again—I send the shards flying across the uneven ground so that I won't have to worry about it landing on anyone. I turn my attention to the dummy on the opposite side of the arena and let the boiling water in the air bombard it on all sides until the material is weak and weathered. I imagine that it's Divine I'm wrecking, along with all of his stupid goals and plans to keep me here by unnecessary familial punishment and enslaving the mind of the only female friend I've ever had. The dummy suddenly bursts into flames, falling off of its stick to the floor where it writhes like a living and burning being.

I suddenly understand why Aki enjoys destruction—there's power coursing through my veins, and I'm the only thing stopping it from wreaking havoc on everything in sight. It's hard to stop, because I know I can do more and watching myself cause so much carnage is almost exciting.

But I do stop, because I'm human, I know my limits, and I want to show Divine that I'm in total control—he can try to control me like he does Aki, but in the end I'm the one deciding when collateral damage is caused and when it gets stopped.

The earth sways to a stop beneath my feet and I watch the dummy continue to burn until all that's left of it is charred burlap.

"You stopped," Divine says flatly.

"And?"

"Why did you stop?"

"I know my limits. I know the limits of this building, too. A few minutes continuing that, and we'd be buried under a skyscraper of rubble. Sometimes you just need to know when _enough is enough._"

Divine doesn't speak, but Aki does. "_Whoa._ Silvan, that was... Phenomenal!"

"There's a beauty in the brutality of destruction, and I'll give you that," I reply. "Stopping it seems hard at first, but knowing that there are other things besides decimation helps. You have to be willing to think as well as feel."

Aki stares curiously at me, sort of like the look she gives Divine when she needs direction.

"Perhaps you don't need much instruction on your psychics," Divine muses. "Why don't you go see Kawasaki, have him observe your turbo dueling skill?"

"I think I will," I say easily. I'm proud of myself for doing something that may have instilled a bit of fear in Divine. I want him to pay for what he's put my brother through in the seven years he's had him, and if I only have two weeks I'm going to start now.

Aki waves a little when I leave, making me think that she's definitely become my friend. I can feel her trust in me now, and I like knowing that I can trust her too. Divine will also get some hell for the lies he's stuffed into her brain.

I come back up the elevator to the floor my room is on. Evan is coming back down the hallway with a heavy book in his hands. "Here," he says.

My emotions suddenly drop from their charged state to a forced calm. I glare flatly at Evan. "Do you have to do that?"

"Yes. It's dangerous when you're angry."

"I'm not angry _anymore_," I mumble.

"Of course you aren't," he retorts. "This book has the Signer legend in it."

"Thanks. I think that I'm going to slip out and show this to Yusei."

"Divine won't try to stop you?"

I laugh lightly. "Probably not."

Evan examines my face. "Be careful anyways."

"I will. I'll see you a little later." I keep the book under the crook of my left arm and go back down the elevator to the main level. Divine did tell me to go see Kawasaki, so that's what I'll do.

I move out to the track and see another duel runner going out around the circuit. It's a newer model, probably factory made, and pretty simple looking for trainees.

Kawasaki stands by the gate and waves his hands. "No, Jei, you have to—Christ, Jei, don't turn that way!"

I watch the duel runner wobble as it spins a turn and skids to a stop beside the gate. Kawasaki acknowledges me with a short wave and the guy on the duel runner struggles to pull his helmet off.

"Jei, your handling is weak," Kawasaki moans. "I told you, you're supposed to move with the bike, not just move the bike!"

"Common misconception," I add. "Think of it as an extension of yourself."

"Exactly!" Kawasaki says. The guy finally gets his helmet off—I recognize one of the Arcadia guards from the Fortune Cup, the one that was nice enough to offer me his assistance.

"It's harder than you make it seem!" He exclaims, staring at the helmet. "I'm doing everything you say, but nothing is going right!"

"Man, you're doin' _something_ wrong!"

"Hey, um, I'm sorry to interrupt," I say as politely as I can, "but can I take a ride on my duel runner?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry 'bout that!" Kawasaki jogs away from the gate and off towards a little building in the east.

"What are you having problems with?" I ask the guard. He looks a few years older than me, maybe nineteen or twenty, with ruffled dark brown hair and bright green eyes.

"Turning," he grumbles. "The turning part isn't difficult, it's just staying steady after I turn."

"That's easy," I tell him. "You know you have to shift your weight when you turn, right? You just shift it back to the direction you want to go and you're set. It's usually a matter of timing and balance."

"Guess I have to work on balance, then. By the way, I'm Jeiricho."

"It's nice to meet you, Jeiricho," I say. "I'm—"

"Silvan, I know," he replies. "Divine told us about you before the Fortune Cup."

"Thank you for doing what you did there, by the way. You're a little nicer than your friend," I tell him, thinking of the second guard that spoke in a dead tone and stood very uncaringly off to the side after helping me up once.

"Who, Darragh?" Jeiricho laughs a little. "He likes to play dark and mysterious. Don't take it personally."

"If you say so. This may be a stupid question, but are the two of you psychics?"

He laughs. "Yeah, but nothing too special. Just some duel damage and telekinesis. Basically what everyone else here does besides you and Aki Izayoi."

"Does _everyone_ here wait on Aki?" I ask lightly.

"To an extent. She's pretty powerful, so Divine will have some of us guard her whenever she goes out in public. He had me and Darragh loiter around you both for the Fortune Cup, so I guess you're pretty powerful yourself."

"I've been told," I reply exasperatedly. "Why does Divine use you as guards?"

"I dunno. Maybe we're just expendable."

"Why don't you leave, then?" I ask.

"We don't have anywhere else to go," Jeiricho tells me simply. "We all left our lives behind to join Arcadia, and it'd be difficult to get back into them."

"_Oh_."

"Mmhm. It's no problem, though. Most of us like it here. We're freer than we were before we joined up."

The sentence sounds almost scary. If this is free, I wonder what his life was like before Arcadia.

Kawasaki wheels my duel runner out and stands it up beside the gate. "Here ya go, Silvan. You gonna be taking the track today?"

"_Actually_," I say mischievously, "I was thinking I should widen my route a little." I sit on my duel runner and look up at him, batting my eyelashes and smiling my most winning smile. "Maybe I could go riding out in the city?"

Kawasaki's face suddenly turns red. "W-Well, I-I er, I u-uh I don't s-see why n-not...?"

"Yay!" I exclaim, trying my best to play a cute and peppy teenage girl. It's an old façade I used to use back in the days of Team Satisfaction, when I'd use myself as disgustingly girly bait for distracting other gang members. The guys didn't like it too much, but being a bit of a valley girl proved to be useful when everything else failed. I guess it still works. "Thank you, Kawasaki, I promise I'll be back before noon~! Good luck with your riding, Jeiricho!"

He laughs and shakes his head at me, like he's seen right through my ploy. I wouldn't doubt it if he had.

I put the book Evan gave me into the back compartment of my duel runner and pull my helmet on before I take off into the street.

The city is different in the daytime, full of people and excitement. The Arcadia Movement branches off from the center of the city, so I come out into what looks like the heart of downtown. There are shops and restaurants and people crossing the streets and sitting on benches in the shade—the entire place is just crawling with life.

I continue to the east, where I remember the map Divine gave me showed Daimon to be. I figure that, when I get to Daimon, I'll be able to find Yusei quickly; now that he's the new King, his name and face will be pretty well known.

I ride around cars and cabs on my way, and suddenly I get stuck in a slew of traffic in front of what looks like a hospital. A bunch of reporters are out front and are fighting fruitlessly to get inside. Four or five Sector Security officers are standing at the doors like a human barricade.

I think that most of the cars I'm trapped behind must be news vans and taxi cabs due to the media juggernaut I'm witnessing; I can only wonder what's going on inside.

One thing's for sure, I've figured out another difference between Neo Domino and Satellite—Satellite was never this crowded. Sure, a lot of people live there, but the streets are never packed with people. Much less vehicles.

I'm searching for a way around the group of cars when the reporters near the hospital suddenly come running towards me. I feel panic welling up, and I see a familiar woman storming across the pavement to me. She's the lady with the short hair who I saw with Goodwin yesterday, the one that thinks that I'm tacky.

"You," she demands, "come with me."

"Excuse me?" I ask. "Why are you—"

"Don't argue with me. Mr. Atlas is asking to see you."

"_Mr. Atlas_," I say through my teeth. "You can tell _Mr. Atlas _that I'll have to die right here before I do anything he wants."

"That's cute, you think you have a choice." She grabs my arm and heaves me off of my duel runner. I want to do something to stop her, lash out and smack her upside the head or something, but I'm suddenly getting squished on all sides by journalists bombarding me with vague questions.

"Are you associated with Jack Atlas?"

"Has he asked you to come visit?"

"Are you one of Jack's female callers?"

"What is your opinion on the new King of Turbo Duelists?"

As much as I'd love to spew tons of different cuss words to these pretentious field reporters, their proximity to me is making me oddly claustrophobic. Right now, I'm only trying to make sure that my lungs aren't crushed from so many bodies closing in on me. Goodwin's assistant-lady pulls on my wrist and jerks me free of the crowd of people, past the Securities at the gate, and into the serene, sterile-smelling _wonderland_ of Neo Domino's general hospital.

Did I mention that I _hate_ going to the doctor?

"Why am I here?" I groan.

"Believe me, I'm asking the same question," Goodwin's assistant responds. "Follow me." She stalks past the front desk and I see no other option but to follow her. I really don't want to go back outside into the throng of reporters.

I'm led down a couple of tiled hallways and up a few floors on the elevator until we come all the way down to a room with another Security standing in front of it. He sees Goodwin's assistant and opens the door for us.

She shoves me inside and closes the door angrily behind me. I scoff and kick the door as it closes, which makes Jack Atlas laugh from where he is in the room.

"Don't you fucking laugh at me, you inconsiderate piece of shit," I snap. "What in hell's name do you want from me?"

He sits, immobile, in a hospital bed with his left arm in a cast. Jack points with his good arm to the window across from his bed, giving an almost perfect view of my duel runner abandoned in a sea of lopsidedly parked news vans. "I saw you stop and had Mikage bring you up."

"How'd you know it was me? You don't know what my duel runner looks like, just the old one."

"Are you still on that? _Boy_, can you hold a grudge."

"And I'll hold it for a while more, _thanks_," I tell him. By the sight of his arm, I expect that he got it from his duel with Yusei. I'd say karma caught up with him at an appropriate moment. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you." He shrugs the right sleeve of his hospital gown up and shows me a dark carving of a pair of wings. His Signer mark. "You're in this, aren't you?"

"The hell is it with you people? I'm not a Signer."

"I'm not asking you if you're a Signer—I'm asking you if you're involved."

"And what if I was? What makes you think I'd tell you?"

"Because we're friends?" He tries.

I scoff. "You think that after all you've done, you still get to call yourself my friend? That's _rich_. _Friends_ don't steal each other's stuff. _Friends_ don't abandon each other for fame and fortune. _Friends_ don't tie friends up and toss them out to sea."

"I get it, Sil. Yusei already read me the riot act."

It irritates me that I can't read his mind the way I could before. "That really doesn't change anything. You got your dumb attendant to drag me all the way up here so that you could try to get information out of me like Goodwin couldn't, but I don't owe you anything so this was all for nothing!"

It's at that moment that my mark lights up and a vase of flowers across the room bursts. The flowers fall onto the tile floor and the porcelain goes flying, but the water stays suspended for a few moments before it explodes into steam.

"Do you make a habit of destroying things when you're angry?" He asks, staring at the mess of flowers and shards of pottery on the floor. I note that he isn't surprised, which doesn't in turn surprise me. Jack isn't thrown off by much.

"Consider yourself lucky I didn't break the window," I grumble. "I'm leaving—I was busy trying to do something when you decided to _conveniently_ divert my attention."

"Silvan, you're a part of this whether you like it of not. Sometime or another, you'll have to accept it—"

"I'm not denying that I have something to do with the Signers," I snap. "I know that I do. Shit wouldn't happen to me otherwise. I am denying telling you anything—I don't owe you any kindnesses. _You'll_ have to accept _that_, whether _you_ like it or not."

Jack scowls, and I smile sourly back. "Fine, leave then."

"That's more like it. Don't try and get me to have a regular conversation with you again—things aren't like they used to be, and they'll never be the same." I toss open the door and the woman outside—Jack said her name is Mikage—rushes to stop me. My mark spits off a spray of green particles and Mikage slips on a sheet of ice that's suddenly appeared on the tile floor. She lands, exclaims in surprise, and glances back up to me. "Don't try to get my attention anymore, please. This _tacky_ girl is capable of more than you think."

She gapes at me as I leave down the elevator and back to where I first came into the hospital. I roll my helmet in my hands a few times, anticipating the deadly crowd of journalists outside the front doors, and walk outside.

A bunch of people with microphones rush at me, asking questions similar to those I heard before I went inside.

"Are you here to see Jack Atlas?"

"Is it true Jack is from Satellite?"

"Has the old King been a fraud this whole time?"

I think about totally throwing Jack under the bus, spewing the truth and telling them that he's from Satellite and he did a bunch of underhanded things to get to this moment in time... But then I decide not to, because it looks like Jack's living a lie he'll have to deal with on his own. I don't owe him the kindness of lightening the load.

"I'm not here for your silly Turbo Duel King," I say, pushing past groups of starving writers. "Can I be allowed to visit sick relatives without being washed away by a sea of media workers?"

Most of the reporters around me recede after that, but others know that Mikage dragging me inside was a sign of visiting Jack and start to push their way around to me. I speed up my steps, gather my hair against my head, and slip my helmet on before I dislodge my duel runner from the mess of news vans and take off into the street.

The road is smooth under the tires, and it feels like I'm leaving all of my troubles behind. Roads were never this flat in Satellite.

I find my way to what looks like a sub freeway entrance, guarded by one Sector Security officer who sees me and doesn't say a thing. The road curves down into a ramp that exits out into a space familiar from my first excursion with Aki—it's undoubtedly Daimon.

I slow down as I reach a row of apartments. They're all multiple levels and squished together with only small alleys and fire escapes between them. The streets are still smooth, but everything is a little beat up and aged. It reminds me of Satellite, at least the way that everything is set up and how the streets are more rural than Neo Domino's metropolitan neighborhoods. I like it, though, because it reminds me of home.

My speed lets up a little more as I pass by the first row of complexes, listening in on every mind I can detect. It's harder because I can't direct my focus to the area around me fully without crashing. I pull to a stop in front of another building and stay still, trying to listen to the world around.

I can hear footsteps of small children in a sandlot somewhere to the east, and the shouts of street duelists in the same direction. I can feel the earth vibrating as doors to shops open and people move around in the apartments above me. Thoughts of food, clothing, what to watch on television, and if someone has enough money to buy new cards from a card shop to the northeast float in and out of my ears.

I'm looking for anything to clue me in. Abnormal silences, the rev of a duel runner, even if someone just thinks Yusei's name for a moment—anything to help me find where he could be.

I catch his name on the wind and hear the beat of footsteps coming in the distance. A spray of thoughts come from the small group, and one of them recognizes me before I even see their faces.

"Hey!" I turn to see Rua running towards me, his sister Ruka and Yusei's friend Himuro following behind with another figure that I don't recognize.

"Rua!" I say, pulling my helmet off. My hair tumbles down my back. "How'd you know it was me?"

"Lucky guess," he comments. "Yusei said you had a silver duel runner."

"Convenient," I mutter. "What are you guys doing here? Where's Yusei?"

"He went to go talk with Goodwin," Himuro chimes. "He's sort of done with the government's shit."

"I think we all are, to some extent," I groan. I suppose I made the trip here for no reason.

Ruka peers around Rua. "You?"

"Me," I answer. Maybe I didn't come for nothing. "You must be Ruka. I'm Silvan—nice to officially meet you."

"Likewise," she says meekly. "I didn't think I'd ever get to meet you in person..."

"What do you mean? I saw you in the halls during the Fortune Cup," I tell her in confusion.

"Really?" She seems surprised.

"Pay attention, Ruka!" Rua laughs.

She ignores him. "I-I have so many questions for you..."

"I'd be glad to answer them, just as long as I can answer them before noon," I reply. "I'm currently staying in the Arcadia Movement, and my accommodations are strict." I park my duel runner next to a flight of concrete stairs at the entrance of one of the apartment complexes. Everyone else remains quiet while Ruka asks me what she needs to.

"The book you pulled out yesterday—will you explain it to me?"

"Do you want to see it?" I pull it from my back pocket and hand it to her.

She flips across the pages. "What language is this?"

Rua, who's staring over her shoulder, scoffs. "Language? All I see are a bunch of tally marks."

I remember how Yusei was able to see words if he looked long enough. From past experience, I know that Yusei thinks far too fast unless he purposely slows himself down, which he usually doesn't unless he really wants to figure something out. Ruka must be insanely focused already if she can read it that easily.

"Celtic," I answer. "This is a spell book. My mark allows me to cast the spells inside with a little bit of its power."

"Show me?"

I flip through the pages and cast the spell to light my mark and condense the moisture in the air around us. Ruka watches the particles float with a strange intensity that I wouldn't expect from someone so young.

Rua flicks at the little beads of water and tries gathering them together into a larger ball of water, finding that they only bounce off of each other. Himuro stands, straight-faced, off to the side with the other elder man they came with. He marvels at the sight of the water.

"This is... _Surreal_," she says finally, watching me freeze the drops and then let them steam back into the atmosphere.

"Isn't it? The other spells I've cast are things like invisibility, protection, increased hearing... My mark gives me the ability to see the past, as well."

"You mentioned that you're staying at Arcadia. Are you also psychic?"

"Yes, my brother and I—" I choke on my last word as fingers of ice wind around me and I fall into a vision. The pain isn't the same as it was when I envisioned Aki's past—this time, it's less painful and more immobilizing. I can't move, and I can barely breathe. It feels like all of my muscles and bones have frozen.

The vision is of a small girl, maybe three or four, in a field of tall grass and flowers. The girl appears to be a younger version of Ruka—her hair is pulled into the same twin ponytails. She's making a flower crown and is surrounded by what looks like a pack of duel monsters. They're unfamiliar to me and look very soft and princess-like.

She's laughing happily and putting the flower crown onto the head of a little puff ball monster with a ribbon tied around the tail, when suddenly the vision whooshes out into a hospital room. Ruka's lying there—she appears to be asleep.

Rua stands beside her, staring curiously at her face set in repose, while I hear a woman in the background speaking in grave tones. Rua suddenly reaches over the side of the bed and grabs Ruka's hand. "Ruka?"

Then she wakes up, looking at the ceiling like absolutely nothing has gone wrong while a small groups of adults rush over to her.

The vision rushes back into me at an incredibly high speed, sending me falling into my back with an inability to get up.

"Christ," I groan. "Someone help me up..."

Rua and Ruka move to pull me off of my back—my body is still locked into an immobile position. I notice Ruka's mark giving off a dim glow.

"A couple seconds ago, I mentioned visions," I tell her as my mark extinguishes itself. "_Voilà_."

"What did you see?"

"You," I reply, "in some field of flowers with a group of duel monsters. Then you were in a hospital bed and Rua woke you up by touching your hand."

"_Oh_."

"Is there something wrong?"

"N-No," she stutters. "I just wonder why you saw that. I was in a coma for a bit when I was a toddler, but it wasn't anything terrible."

"I think I know why I saw it," I murmur, thinking of how I saw Aki's defining moment when I first envisioned her. "It's what makes you unique out of the Signers, probably. What were you doing in that field?"

"I took a trip to the Duel Monster Spirit World," Ruka answers quietly.

"So you commune with duel spirits? That does define you, I suppose."

"Maybe you're onto something. Have you had any visions of the other Signers?"

"Only Aki," I tell her. "I saw the moment she got her mark, and the vision was more painful than it was stalling."

"You mean they felt different?"

"Yeah, but only for you two."

"I have a theory," Ruka tells me. "You're right, about the visions of Signers being somewhat of a defining moment. But what if the feeling that comes with it has something else to do with it?"

"What are you getting at?" I ask.

"If there was a lot of pain with Aki and a lot of unfeeling with me, do you think that that means something in the grand scheme of things?"

I think of the pain Aki goes through, and the pain she causes. Everything about her resorts to pain when all else fails. "Yeah, it's possible."

Rua peeks up over her shoulder. "You said something about having a brother, right?"

"Rua," Ruka complains, like she's being interrupted.

"It's all right," I say lightly. "I do have a brother—his name is Evan and he's my elder twin."

"You have a twin!" Rua exclaims, his eyes lighting up.

"Yes," I laugh. "He's also psychic and is staying with me."

"Why are you in the Arcadia Movement?" Ruka asks suspiciously.

"Yeah, those guys are creepy!" Rua mumbles.

"I know. I'm not staying by choice." The pair sit beside me, and Himuro and his elder companion gather closer while I explain how I got to Neo Domino, in addition to why I can't leave now.

I tell Ruka about the lightning rod, and she cringes while I describe my vision of it. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm not sure yet. Divine's assistant explained the way it works to me, but apparently the sensor is buried off-grounds. I don't know how to find it other than triggering a vision with Divine in it, and I don't know how to do that."

Ruka stares off as she thinks. Rua anxiously rubs his knee. "Jeez, that sounds painful."

"I can't imagine what else he's been through," I say gravely. "All I know is that I want to get him out before anything else goes wrong."

"Have you tried looking in your spell book?" Ruka suggests. "Maybe something inside could help you trigger what you need to locate the sensor."

"You're right—I'll try it."

"Hey, isn't that Witch-lady in Arcadia too?" Rua remarks.

"She isn't a 'Witch-lady,'" I protest. "Aki's just been manipulated. She's really a kind person, and she's my friend, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't call her that."

Rua shrinks back. "Sorry."

"I want to get Aki out, too," I say. "She's a Signer and she needs exposure to the world around if she's supposed to help it someday."

"I agree. Do you think she'd be willing to help?"

"I'd hope so. Maybe I'll run it by her and see if she'd be up for it."

"One more thing, Silvan," Ruka says meekly. "You're... You're not the fifth Signer, are you?"

"No," I tell her. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"I'm not disappointed," she replies optimistically. "I'm happy that you're on our side. Maybe you aren't one of us _persay_, but I bet you do have something to do with us."

"It's possible." I remember the book in the back of my duel runner. "_Oh_!" I get up and pull it out of the back compartment. "My brother gave this to me today. It's supposed to have some better details of the Signer legend inside of it. I was planning on showing it to Yusei, but since he's not around I figure you can get more use out of it than me."

Ruka takes the text from me, weighing it in her hands.

"You can keep it as long as you'd like," I add. "I don't think Divine will miss it."

"Thank you," she replies. "I've learned a lot from talking to you."

"The feeling is mutual—I'm glad we all ran into each other."

"I'll make sure Yusei hears that you came around here," Himuro says nonchalantly.

"Thanks. By the way, I don't think we've met before," I say, addressing the elder man beside Himuro.

"Me?" He asks. "I'm Tenzen Yanagi—I met your friend Yusei in the Detention Center. You've got a strange mark like him, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. It's nice to meet you—my name is Silvan."

"The pleasure's mine! Do you mind if I see it?"

I shrug my jacket off and show him the black circular engraving; he examines it for a few moments before he shakes his head a little. "Can't say I recognize this mark from my travels... And you say it's affiliated with the Signers?"

"It's what I'm thinking," I reply, "but my brother and I discovered that it originates in Ireland, which is way far from Peru."

"Never been to Ireland!" Yanagi exclaims. "Boy, would I love to take a trip, though."

"Me too. Maybe I could find something out there. Though, right now, there are other things I have to accomplish." I turn back to Ruka. "I should probably get going. I've done a bunch in just the last ten minutes and I think I've seen enough of the city for one day."

"When will we see you again?" Ruka asks earnestly.

"I'll try to make it soon," I answer. "I have a lot of things to try and uncover before we can all get out of Arcadia."

"I understand... Please be careful with whatever you end up doing."

"You too. It was nice to see you all, and good to meet you, Yanagi."

They watch me as I pull my helmet on, climb onto my duel runner, and speed back up the street entrance and into the boulevard. When I pass the hospital, I see that most of the news vans and vehicles have cleared, save for a couple of vacant cars.

I pull back into Arcadia and see Jeiricho still going at it, but Kawasaki is accompanied by someone else now. He's the other guard I remember from the Fortune Cup—I think Jeiricho mentioned that his name is Darragh.

He's a year or two older than me with black hair and eyes an unusual shade of brown-gold. He has a black helmet in his hands, which he seems more interested in than what's going on in front of him.

"I'm back," I call gently, trying not to cause any unnecessary distractions. If Jeiricho were to hear me, his automatic response would be to turn his head and look, which could mean crashing. It's a typical human error—I've done it plenty of times.

Jeiricho smartly pulls to a stop beside the gate. "Hi Silvan!"

Kawasaki takes my helmet from me and smiles awkwardly while wheeling my duel runner back to the little building at our backs. A split second peek into his mind tells me that he's remembering my earlier effort to twist him to my bidding. I have to hide a smirk.

Darragh sees me and rolls his eyes. I scoff. "What's _your_ problem?"

"I'd prefer if you didn't address me like I have the problem when it's _you_ who are the problem."

"I _beg_ your pardon?" I say thinly. So much for not taking Mr. Impolite personally. "What the hell have I done to you?"

"I don't have to answer you," he grumbles.

I scowl and purposely reach out to grasp his mind. A little voice in his mind tells me that he holds some weird grudge against me, but doesn't specify why or how. He's only ever spoken four or five sentences to me in a relatively deadpanned tone, one of those sentences reminding me to be careful. What did I do to piss him off in those four or five exchanges?

"H-Hey, uh," Jeiricho tries, "be nice, Darragh..."

He sort of grunts to show he's listening, but doesn't answer.

"_Look_," I say. "I don't know what I did to piss you off or give you this weird grudge you somehow have against me, but I sincerely apologize for my incompetence now and in the very near future." I throw my hands to my sides in a gesture I hope he understands means that I have no idea what's going on. "I hope you know, though, that if you think I'm a terrible person or whatever for the stupid thing I probably didn't even do to you, please try rethinking everything you've ever involved me in. While you're sitting there judging me wrongly, I'm going to judge you in return for being an asshole and there's a big chance we're both assuming wrong. So, yeah, what is your problem? I'll kindly remove myself from this conversation so you can take the time to ponder it." I turn and walk away, feeling like breaking something.

I get inside Arcadia and cross my arms as I go up the elevator, wondering how I could possibly piss someone off without actually doing anything to offend them.

I come out into the hall where my room is and sigh as I breathe in the air being pumped through the building. Suddenly, someone taps me on the shoulder from behind. I'm going to spin around and see who it is, but they grab my arm to keep me from moving.

"I thought you may want these," Seria mumbles. She puts what feels like a thick folder into my hand and brushes past me through the hallway before disappearing. I turn them over in my hands before peeking them over. My eyes fall on the first few words of two of the three files, and my blood runs cold.

"Silvan?" Evan comes out of what seems like nowhere and fast-walks towards me.

"Evan," I whisper, "you have to see this."

He comes beside me and holds up one side of the folder. His eyes grow wide. "Wait, Sil... These are..."

Two of the three names read, 'Levine, Soren,' and 'Levine, Aria.' "M...Mom and Dad."

* * *

**Hoping to finish the next chapter before the end of July. Not sure of my time frame for writing at the moment, since life just suddenly got very busy. **

**Happy 4th, Americans! If you aren't American, you have my condolences as I do hope you survive the next weekend. I know California is about to get very dangerous what with its prohibition of illegal fireworks and amount of people under the age of 21 who know how to get ahold of alcohol. **

**On a lighter note, summer school is getting easier to handle (and Dear God do I hope it stays that way). Celebrating it's ending next month with a trip to Chicago. It should be fun. **

**I really hope this chapter wasn't too incoherent, since a lot needs to happen within this chapter and the next in order to stay in the accurate time frame of two days before shit goes down. *thumbs up***

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	10. Keys

**Hey, lovely readers! Hope you're ready for the next chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

I stare at my father's face. He has a square jaw like Evan and a stark confidence in his gray eyes. His hair, the same silver blond as mine and Evan's, falls lopsidedly over his face while one side of his mouth pulls up into a mischievous smirk.

My mother's picture shows a beautiful young woman with dark heavy hair falling to her shoulders in loose ringlets. Her eyes are blue and piercing, an exact copy of mine and my brother's. Her face holds a gentle yet stoic maturity shown in the softness of her jaw and the smooth lines of her small nose, the same one I see when I look in the mirror.

Evan grabs my arm and pulls me into what I think is his room, judging by the mountains of books, scrolls, papers, and other loose pages scattered on the floor. He knows we can't be seen with these.

We sit down on his bed and he takes our mother's file in his hands. "Levine, Aria Seiko Morishige. Gender, Female. Height, five feet three and a half inches; hair, black; eyes, blue. Occupation, specialized surgeon of the head and neck. Date of birth, September 13th. Date of death, February 10th aged 24 years. Cause of death, severe hemorrhaging due to unplanned childbirth. Survived by husband Levine, Soren Lucas and children Levine, Evan Zachary and Levine, Silvan Hayley."

My voice shakes as I read our father's out loud. "L-Levine, Soren Lucas. Gender, Male. Height, six feet two inches; hair, blond; eyes, gray. Occupation, engineer and architect specializing in machinery. Date of birth, June 3rd. Date of death, February 14th aged 25 years. Cause of death, instant vaporization due to unknown bursts of uncontrollable nuclear energy. Survived by children Levine, Evan Zachary and Levine, Silvan Hayley."

"Where did you get these?" Evan whispers.

"S-Seria," I stutter. "I talked to her earlier about you issue, and she just passed these to me in the hallway. Like she didn't want anyone to see."

"Why would she have our parents' files?"

"There's a third one," I realize, and I fear who it will be until I see that I don't recognize their face. Evan takes it from me and reads it out loud. "Saitou, Yamato Asahi. Gender, Male. Height, five feet nine inches; hair, brown; eyes; brown. Occupation, orthopedic and clinical surgeon. Date of birth, March 20th. Date of death, N/A. Arrested January 9th and tried for multiple counts of illegal and unauthorized grafting. Pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and released to Neo Domino Mental Institute on May 6th. Attempted escape on May 13th, readmitted June 1st. Fianceé Yuuki Sasori went missing not long after."

"A plastic surgeon?" Evan asks, confused. "What does Divine's assistant want us to do with that?"

"Not just a plastic surgeon," I realize. "A _bone_ surgeon."

"Wait... Are you—"

"—going to pay a visit to a mental institution? You bet your ass I am. How much are you willing to wager that this was the guy Divine hired to stick that piece of metal in your leg?"

"Not much! How do you know you can even trust this? Why would Divine have our parents' files?"

"The same reason he has a thousand books written in a dead language that only I can understand," I reply. "To know more about us. The only difference is that he probably didn't intend for us to see them."

"What are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that after I spoke with Seria, she went looking through Divine's files for a lead on how to shut that thing off. She must've found this guy hoping I'd go look for him, but she probably also stumbled across these and decided that we needed to see them."

"Do you think he has others?" Evan asks quietly.

"Maybe. I don't know where Seria got these, but I almost want to look for more."

"His study," Evan suggests. "Things always appear in there that weren't there before. Secrets within secrets, remember?"

"Yeah." I pull my spell book from my back pocket and anxiously play with the binding. "I'm... I'm going to go look."

"I'll keep these here," he replies firmly, taking our dad's file from me. "Be very careful."

"I'll be more than careful." I cast the invisibility spell over myself and exit Evan's room. I realize as I'm walking down the hall how much easier it's gotten to cast spells. I don't know if my focus has improved, if I'm just used to using my power, or what... But it's only been a few days. The fact that it's become so simple so quickly amazes me.

I stand before the door to Divine's study and listen. There's no sign of life inside, and I can't sense his gurgling thoughts. It's empty.

I push open the door and shut it behind me, staring around the room. The window is still gaping and air brushes through the room, but the glass has been swept away. I checked his desk before; the possibility that he would hide important things inside it isn't very likely.

One thing I didn't check before was the bookcase. I pick my way around Divine's desk and glance over the books on the shelf. There are a lot of them, but not all of them look like actual books. A red text on the third shelf sticks out at an unnatural angle. I attempt to pull it out, finding that it doesn't come out of the case. That's when I decide to push it in, and the bookcase jerks along the floor to reveal a hidden room.

I go through the doorway and pull the case back in front of the hole in case Divine suddenly comes back inside. Now, I'm trapped in the secret room—I hope that no one comes in and senses me.

The room is dark and musty, with old books scattered everywhere since there's no more room left in the shelves and cases around me. They're in a hundred different languages—I recognize things like Russian, Latin, Spanish, English, German, French, among others. A few of them are even Celtic. I wonder how and where he got ahold of them.

A file cabinet sits with a stack of books on top of it—the center drawer is cracked open. I yank the drawer open; there are dozens of names marked at the top of lines of plain pee chee folders sorted in alphabetical order. They're files on different people, and this thing has multiple drawers. Divine may just have files on everyone in the city.

This particular drawer holds people with last names K–O. I pick through the Ls and find mine and Evan's files, the only remnants that my family was ever in this drawer. They're relatively thin, opposite from my parents' which are stuffed with papers and things having to do with them.

Mine doesn't show a picture, most likely because I'm not a citizen of Neo Domino and I never registered with their system. The enscription is very short, as well: _Levine, Silvan Hayley. Gender, Female. Height, unknown; hair, blonde; eyes, blue. Occupation, unknown. Date of birth, February 10th. No other information available._

I'm happy to see that Divine really doesn't have a lot of information on me, but when I turn to the next page of the file I see a diagram of my mark. Written in a neat scrawl underneath it are, '_Signer? Powerful?_'

On the back, it looks like a page from a book has been copied in ink. It's written in Celtic, and it reads something along the lines of, 'the Tripartite is to not be measured—it is continuous.'

What is a Tripartite?

I shut the file and move to Evan's, which actually does have a picture of him in it. His eyes stare ahead almost solemnly, like he's a walking corpse who's long since accepted his death. His inscription is a little longer, which worries me: _Levine, Evan Zachary. Gender, Male. Height, six feet three and a half inches; hair, blond; eyes, blue. Occupation, N/A. Date of birth, February 10th._

Beneath that are paragraphs of notes in the same script I saw before. They note things like his behavioral patterns, the strength of his empathetic ability, and how long it takes for him to activate his psychics during a duel. Divine's also written down things like his IQ, allergies, what calms him, and what can rile him up.

They're all very meticulous notes—I'm thinking that, despite the lightning rod thing, Divine actually treated Evan well while he stayed here. He payed attention to a lot of my brother's habits. It saddens me that it was only to draw me here, though.

Beyond the spreadsheet that Divine scribbled on, there's another diagram of the two bones in the lower leg. There are some calculations on the side and measurements of the approximate space between the fibula and tibia, like Divine wondering what exactly could fit between them.

The next thing in the pile are envelopes; dozens and dozens of them with a messy boyish script directing them to Satellite. They've been sealed and they have a stamp, but here they are unopened. I rip the top of one of them open and unfold it. The date at the top is November 15th, four days after Evan disappeared when we were children.

_Silvan, _it says, _don't worry about where I've gone. I'm going to be somewhere for a while, so make sure not to cause any trouble while I'm gone. I know Yusei will keep you company in the meantime. Please remember to wash your face before you go to sleep, brush your teeth after breakfast, and pick the apples with the least amount of bruises. I know you forget to do those things sometimes. Love, your big brother Evan._

There are a bunch of other letters beneath it, all with different dates and forms of the same handwriting. Had Evan been writing me letters?

I pack the letters and papers back into Evan's file and stack it on top of mine. I have to wonder if there are any other people I know in here...

I pull open the top drawer and, sure enough, I find a file marked 'Atlas, Jack.' Maybe I don't owe him anything, but I don't want Divine to have any connections to me. I put it on top of mine and Evan's and subsequently move to the second drawer and pull out Aki's file.

It's probably the fattest file in the entire cabinet, and I don't have time to look through it now. In the same drawer, I find not only a file on Yusei, but a file on his mother and father. I think that he may want to see them, so I pull them out as well.

I'm relieved to see that neither Crow nor Kiryu have files on them. While skimming back down the third drawer, however, I find files on both Rua and Ruka. There isn't much in them, but I wouldn't want anything to get added on.

I'm carrying nine of them when I finish with the file cabinet; I wonder if there's anything else I could take at a later time, but I can't see something that would be worth grabbing.

I get back to the bookcase and I hear a shuffling inside of the office. My heart thuds quickly, and I back away from the case. I sense someone coming closer, possibly coming into where I am. I drop the files onto the floor and pull the spell book out of my back pocket—I flip relentlessly through it, looking for something that could help me.

"Apparation?" I whisper under my breath as I come to it in the book. The term sounds vaguely familiar, even though I don't know what it means. The bookcase swings open. I don't see anything other option than to try casting this spell. "_Ordaímse mo fhoirm a galú cosúil leis na farraigí agus condense i réimsí de mo rogha_."

A jolt runs through me as my mark lights up for a very short second and then I'm suddenly laying across my bed with papers flying everywhere. I scramble to my feet—Evan stares in confusion at me from one side of the room. He's still holding our dad's file. "...what the hell?"

"What's apparation?" I ask immediately.

"Uh... I think it's a form of teleportation."

"That explains it." The files I retrieved have made a mess all over the floor; Evan helps me collect them back into coherency. I tell him about what I saw in Divine's study, including the secret room and the nine files I've brought back.

He gravitates to Yusei's file, which does have a picture in it (probably from the mugshots they made him take in the Detention Center). "Mmhm, I remember him now. Were you going to mention that he's been arrested?"

"Oh, come on! Can you please trust that I can pick my friends well?"

Evan holds up his hands defensively, then his eyes catch something. "Looks like it is real..."

"Huh?"

"I went through Dad's file some more," Evan explains. "It has a picture of him and a couple of his colleagues during a big project of theirs." He gives me a photograph, and immediately I think of a vision I had not too long ago. It's my father standing between Yusei's parents, in front of a machine glowing a rainbow of different colors. Written at the bottom is '_Ener-D, February 2nd.'_

"What's Ener-D?" I say under my breath.

"I can answer that. Ener-D was a project to help provide Neo Domino with clean, reusable energy produced by the power given off by duels," he tells me. "According to Dad's file, he was in charge of designing and building the machinery for it, and Yusei's parents were at the head of the project."

"Our parents worked on a project to help Neo Domino go green?" I retort.

"Basically. A few days before the project was supposed to be fully operational, it suddenly imploded and destroyed everything within a 500 mile radius. The energy also created a crevice in the earth that separated Satellite from Neo Domino."

I reflect on my very first vision, and how clearly I can still see the buildings crashing down and fire engulfing the streets. "...it said on Dad's file that his cause of death was disintegration."

"That's right. The energy from Ener-D also completely broke up every person working in that lab, including our father and Yusei's parents."

"_Oh_."

"There's another thing. The dates here prove that we weren't born in Satellite."

"Come again?!"

"We were both born February 10th, and Ener-D blew up on the 14th. Yusei was born at least a couple months before that. We're all city kids."

"Wait, but why were we told that we were born in Satellite?"

"We were too young for anyone to assume anything else," Evan replies.

"_Well_," I say lightly. "If I had a dime for every Sector Security officer that called me 'Satellite trash,' I'd be living the high life—how ironic."

"More irony," he answers. "We actually were living the high life; for four days, at least. Dad and Mom lived in the Tops, which is the high rise sector of Neo Domino."

"So, not only are we city kids, but we're _rich_ city kids?"

"Appears so." Evan turns over some of the files in his hands and comes to Aki's. "Uh. _Whoa_."

"I didn't look in it. I didn't have the time."

He stares at me. "What do you mean?"

"Well, someone was coming in while I was in there..."

Evan sighs. "I'm going to look through these. I'd give it a bit until Divine realizes they're gone and comes to look for them—"

"—I'm not putting them back," I snap.

"I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to look through your spell book and look for a cast that can hide things."

"Why do we need that?" I ask.

"Divine's going to know they're missing and the first place he'll look is in one of our rooms. I say you keep them somewhere and cast something that can keep them safe from him."

"Okay..." I lay down on the floor, flipping aimlessly through the spell book in search of something useful in our given situation. I've dog-eared a lot of the pages, most notably the spells for invisibility, Draíocht, hearing, and tapping into the energy of my mark. I fold down the corner on the page for apparating, thinking that I may have to use it in the future.

"Evan," I tell him lightly, my eyes skimming a page as I remember, "did you write me letters?"

"Didn't you get them?" He asks, bewilderment painting his tone.

"I don't know how many you sent, but I found a bunch of them stuffed into your file. I never got any letters from you."

Evan curses under his breath. "Damned asshole..."

"So, how many did you try to send?"

"Twenty or thirty. I stopped giving them to Divine to mail because I thought you were mad at me and deliberately not replying. I guess now I know he just never sent them."

"Why would Divine tell you he'd sent them?" I laugh sourly.

"He was the one who suggested I write them in the first place," Evan replies. "So I could keep in contact with you. Obviously, none of them got to you. Bastard probably wanted me to feel like I had some freedom."

"I cracked open your file for a minute or so," I tell him. "It seems like you were treated pretty well."

"Well, yeah, at first. Rooming was comfortable, I could go anywhere I wanted within the grounds, and I was given anything I asked for within reason."

"Within reason?"

"Within _Divine's_ reason," he clarifies. "It didn't really change until Aki arrived."

"How so?" I ask, flipping to the next page of the spell book.

"Divine used to constantly have his assistant wake me up in the morning, and I'd go to sort of a version of school."

"You went to school?" My voice rises an octave from my surprise.

"Mmhm. Three hours a day, Divine would have someone teach me history, mathematics, and literature. He wanted me to be educated so that I wouldn't be an obvious Satellite kid. At the time, Sector Security was investigating the movement and attempting to shut it down. If they'd found out that Divine had smuggled a Satellite kid across the sound, they'd have shut him down for sure."

"Why didn't they?"

"The investigations just sort of stopped a bit after they began. That was before I'd tried to make a run for it. I overheard him talking to Seria about you and decided I had to run and make sure he couldn't hold me against you."

"What happened after you made your break?" I ask nervously.

"Well, after that escapade, I got up with my leg in a cast and Divine gave me the run down of what would happen if I tried to get away again. Everything sort of continued the same for a long time after that, despite me having to deal with my leg and Divine starting to train my psychics as they appeared."

"About how long was that?"

"Three, four years. The Movement started getting bigger in that time, and then Aki came along. Seria stopped getting me up for school and Divine turned all of his efforts to Aki. I was almost fifteen by then."

That was about the time when my friends and I were actually friends—before the end of Team Satisfaction.

"What happened after that?" I realize that I've been too busy listening to Evan's story to continue searching for a spell. I flip to the next page.

"I started teaching myself things. Taking books from Divine's study and continuing my education on my own. We sort of stopped short and I wanted to keep going, so I found a way to keep getting smarter."

"To find a way to outsmart him." He doesn't say it, but I know he wants to.

"Yeah."

"I'm not too clear on history and literature, but I could kick your ass in physics and calculus," I retort in an attempt to lighten the mood. "It takes a hell of a lot of analytics to build a duel runner."

"I believe you," he laughs.

I turn to another page. There's an obnoxious elephant in the room, and I want it out. "Evan... I'm going to get you out of here. You know that?"

"It's a nice thought, Sil, but I've tried and it hasn't worked."

"Evan, you're the only family I have—I care about you, and I've been missing you for seven whole years. We're going to get out of here together and see the world and be people with a purpose." I move the spell book out from in front of my face and glare at him.

"It's impossible," he insists. "Unless you find the trigger for it, we can't get out, and no one but Divine knows where it is."

"Don't tell me something is impossible when I'm holding a book written in an ancient language that can turn me invisible."

Evan sighs. "Focus."

"I am focused; there's more than one issue to focus on." I flip another page and my eyes catch something. "_Aistriú_—to move or transfer."

"How does that solve anything?"

I pull myself up off of the floor and lean against the closet. "I already have the invisibility cast. What if I melded it with a transfer cast?"

"What, like transfer the object of the spell?"

"Exactly." I hold the page open and flip back through the book to where I've dog eared the invisibility spell. "_Aistriú mo ceocháin_."

My mark comes to life, the green light spreading over my arm and suddenly condensing into a thick green mist that crawls over the air in front of me. I point it at the files sprawled across the floor and the mist suddenly engulfs it, fading away to leave nothing there.

Evan blinks at me. "Can you bring them back?"

"I think so. I recommend we don't leave them in the middle of the floor, though."

"I'll put them under my bed. Just bring them back so we can put them there."

I cast a reversal spell, placed just under the transfer cast, and Evan rearranges the file folders underneath his bed. I take the one belonging to Yamato Saitou before I recast the transfer spell and conceal the other eight files.

"What are you doing?" Evan asks as I arrange it carefully in the back of my jacket and zip the front so that it doesn't fall out.

"I said I was going to visit a mental institution," I reply. "I wasn't kidding."

Evan gives me a flat stare. "Watch your back."

"I always do, don't worry. All you have to worry about is keeping a poker face if Divine asks you about those files."

"I have _years_ of practice," he assures me.

"I'm sure. I'll see you in a bit." I put my spell book back into my pocket and get myself up off of the floor. I open the door and find that no one is there—I walk quickly to the elevator and punch the button multiple times until the door slides open.

I'm antsy about being seen leaving, and my heart almost stops when the elevator comes to a halt one floor below me.

The Arcadia guard from before, Darragh, is there with his hand on the button and rolls his eyes when he sees me. "I'll take the next one."

Suddenly, I'm less worried and more irritated. I jump forward, grab the collar of his Arcadia robe, and yank him into the elevator before my mark sends off sparks and the door to the elevator slams closed. He stares at me, eyes wide, and I say, "You can _stand_ to be in a small space with me for a five second elevator ride. If you're not going to be a gentleman, at least be half a man."

He scoffs, fixes his tunic, and places himself in the farthest corner of the elevator from me.

I feel the heat gathering under my jacket sleeve, where my mark should be. Even with my outburst at him, he hasn't even second-guessed what appears to be a very stubborn aversion to me. Drops of water are gathering around my fingertips.

The door moves open when we get to the ground floor and I go to exit the elevator, but Darragh hasn't moved.

I turn to watch him attempt to pry his boots from the tile of the elevator—the soles of his shoes have frozen to the floor.

"_Whoops_," I say lightly—I didn't realize I did anything to him. "Sorry about that." But for some reason, I'm not really all that sorry. I wave sarcastically over my shoulder and fast walk away from the elevator and out the door.

I find my way to the track and see that Jeiricho has finished with his ride. No duel runners are out and about, but I see Kawasaki next to the gate reading what looks like a newspaper.

I've already asked him for time outside of the Movement today, so I guess it's time for the sneaky approach. I flip open the spell book and cast the invisibility spell, creeping past Kawasaki and the gate to the little house where I think the duel runners are kept.

The door creaks a little when I push it open, and I freeze in my tracks so I don't accidentally draw any attention to myself. Kawasaki doesn't seem to notice, though, so I slip in through the door and let it swing closed behind me.

There are five models of duel runners inside, including mine. I expect that they use the four factory issued models depending on the size of the rider and how skilled they are, because they all range from small and for a novice to larger and for an expert. Mine is sort of medium sized and stands out considerably from the others.

I slip the folder out of where I've hidden in it my jacket and put it into the back compartment with my tools and my riding suit, then take my spell book back out. "_Aistriú mo ceocháin_."

The green mist spits out of my mark and engulfs my duel runner, turning it as transparent as I am. However, when I reach out to touch it, I can feel the handlebars under my fingertips. I wheel it out as quietly as I can, past a distracted Kawasaki and down from the driveway to the street. Once I'm far enough away from the movement to not be heard, I pull my duel runner into an alley and release my focus so that we can both come back into the viewable world.

I put my helmet on and drive off in the direction of Daimon before I realize that I have no idea where the Neo Domino Mental Institute is. My first thought may be that the hospital has some form of psych ward, so that's the first place I go.

It's clear of reporters finally, and it's barely noon. I wonder where they've all gone. I roll my duel runner up onto the curb and go inside to make a beeline for the receptionist.

"May I help you?" Her face is fairly plain, void of emotion. Her thoughts run blank and bored.

"I was wondering if you would happen to have a psych ward," I say.

Immediately, a picture pops into her mind. It's a nice white building with pine trees out front—I don't know anywhere that has pine trees. "We recently relocated all of our mental patients to the Mental Institute a bit outside of the city."

"Would you mind giving me directions?" I ask. Her mind wonders what my business there is, and I quickly make up an excuse. "My mom wanted me to go and visit my great uncle, see how he's doing, and she didn't tell me where the mental institute he's living in is located."

Her suspicion fades away. "Of course. Let me just pencil down some directions." I watch her pull a sheet of paper from a drawer under her desk and begin to scribble on it with a pen. I wonder if all city people are so easily fooled.

"Here. Just down the road, a little past Daimon is the Detention Center. The Mental Institution is run by the same people who run the Detention Center, and should be quite close to it."

I put on my best sweet innocent girl smile. "Thank you so much!"

The receptionist smiles weakly and I take great care to put a spring in my step as I exit the building. It's important that I stay consistent with all of the facades I choose to adopt while I'm in the city—I need to blend into the public, but I also need to accomplish things. I expect more than one of them will require a false face.

As I exit the hospital, I almost run head first into a girl dressed like a nurse. I move to the side and she stumbles, her glasses going flying as she trips over a concrete step.

"I-I'm so sorry!" She exclaims, making a dive to catch her glasses before they can shatter.

"No problem," I say easily. "Just be careful where you step."

The girl nervously makes her way past me—I can't help feeling like I've seen her somewhere before.

I push the thought from my mind and amble back to my duel runner with the paper in my hands. So, it's connected to the Detention Center? That's an odd place to keep mental patients. I stick the paper into my pocket and ride off towards Daimon. I have to wonder what 'past Daimon' entails, but I keep riding until I'm through the street dueling Arena and into a rough looking sector of the street.

I keep going, trying not to stop, until I see a huge metal building rising in the distance. It must be the Detention Center, because it looks highly secure and I don't see any human beings as I get closer to it.

I take a dirt road up towards the building and slow when it rises up in front of me. It's a huge place, and just being in front of it is almost soul-sucking. I wonder how Yusei possibly survived inside of it.

I keep going along a dirt road leading up into nothing, which eventually spans out to a road that looks like it cuts into a forest. The temperature has almost dropped, and the trees get thicker and thicker until they suddenly fall away into a well-kept white building flanked by pine trees, the same building I saw in the receptionist's mind. A couple of Sector Security officers are posted out front, and one approaches me when I pull up.

"State your business," he demands.

"I'm here to visit someone," I say vaguely. "Will I be allowed in?"

The officer motions for me to follow him to what looks like a toll booth out front. "What's the name of your patient?"

"Yamato Saitou."

The guard types the name into a computer. "What relation do you have to him?"

"I'm an old family friend," I say as convincingly as possible.

"Says here he doesn't have any surviving family."

I need to make something up. I use what I saw in his file. "His fiancée was my step-sister—I just want to see how he's doing, since he meant a lot to her before she disappeared."

The officer eyes me, but seems to buy it. "Keep your runner out here. Visiting hours are over at seven."

"Thank you." I pull my duel runner into the lot beyond the post and follow the second Security into the building. There's only an elevator on the floor we enter; the guard presses the open door button and we load in.

"Saitou hasn't had a visitor in a long time," the guard says as the elevator climbs to the upper floors. "After he was admitted, his fiancée used to visit a lot and he ended up trying to escape so he could see her more. Then she just up and disappeared, and he hasn't had visitors since. Well, save for that one guy."

"One guy?" I fish.

"Yeah, said he was his cousin. Visited once or twice and then never showed again."

"Interesting," I say. "It really is sad that he doesn't get many people to see him."

"Hopefully he'll be happy to see you."

"_Hopefully_..."

The elevator door slides open and the Security steps out next to me into a big white room with tables and chairs, cases of books, and even a chalkboard set up around. I think that the people inside are all mental patients, and they're all either speaking to each other in quick voices or playing with something in front of them like a child.

Given all the horror stories I used to hear involving mental asylums, I'm a little creeped out.

"He's over there," the Security tells me, pointing to where the chalkboard is set up. "I have to warn you, he's taken to speaking in riddles and prophetic nonsense. You might have some difficulty talking coherently with him."

Riddles and prophecies, huh? I acknowledge that I was listening and quietly cross to where Saitou is—he doesn't look much different from the picture in his file despite his brown

hair sticking out in multiple directions from pulling on it and the odd redness to his dark eyes.

"Mr. Saitou?" I ask as soon as I'm close enough. He looks up to watch me and it's almost like his eyes pop out of their sockets.

"Y-You! The young warrior, you're here to do away with me! Please spare my life!" He covers his head with his arms, sort of cowering.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, sitting in a plastic chair across from him.

"The divine, it crushes us all! I had no choice but to bend to its will! I have no wish but to survive this meeting!" He peeks over his arms, and I'm still trying to figure out what he's talking about.

His mind is muddled, twisted a thousand times together until it's almost unreadable. I try to wade through the tangles in it in an attempt to understand. "Mr. Saitou, I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to talk. My name is Silvan."

"T-The forest? Not the young warrior? I could have sworn you were doppelgängers!" Saitou shuffles nervously into the seat across from me.

"Forest?" I say. I guess the Security was right—he does speak mostly nonsense. "Mr. Saitou, what do you mean by that?"

"It isn't what I do mean, rather what I don't!" He scratches the stubble on his chin. "The forest is vast and unchartable. Especially when one navigates it alone. Perhaps it hasn't been traversed singularly, since I see you've made your way here in one piece. The forest belongs to the divine, and they crush those who singularly don't follow them."

I'm having trouble untangling his thoughts, but I see a picture of my brother pass by. "My brother," I press. "My twin—you have met him before, haven't you?"

"Twin? A complementary or matching adjunct to an object or person? There are many things that bear twins or other pairs, such as a person's skeleton. Would you like to take a look?" He stumbles out of the chair and turns the chalkboard over—the other side has multiple scribbles of words that I don't understand and crude drawings of arms and legs. "You see, the human body works as a mirror of itself—each finger is a copy of the finger on the other half, and so on for every other bone!"

Every time I try to ask him a question, he just sort of flips it on me and changes the subject. Maybe, in order to get a good response out of him, I need to start speaking in riddles? "Bones. Yeah, bones—Mr. Saitou, do you know that there are 270 bones in the human body? They fuse over time, so in actuality a grown person has 206 bones in their body."

"The longest bone in the body is the femur," he says, his thoughts speeding up. I try to follow and hang on to the little I've untangled.

"The femur is attached to the tibia and fibula, Mr. Saitou, the two bones in the lower leg." I tug on what hold I have on his mind, trying to slow it down and pull the tangled strands apart.

"Quite." He jumps up and grabs a piece of chalk from the ground, then begins to draw on the crudely sketched leg on one side of the board. "Here, the tibia is on the inside of the shin—the fibula is located on the outside, and both bones have less than two centimeters of space between them despite running at a crevice along each other at a varying distance depending on the height of the given person."

He seems to be going from a cryptic state to more of an analytical one. I try insinuating my problem into the conversation and search for any memory that pops up. "Say that you wanted to fit something into that gap?"

"Depending on the size and shape of the object, but most traditionally one would have to break the bone and reinforce it with said object as a means of healing. I've done many procedures before..." He trails off and his mind screeches to a stop—I feel him picking carefully through the jumbles to find a memory or two.

"There was one," I say gently, "with a boy? A young boy? Do you remember anything about it?"

"Yes," he mumbles, staring off into space. He stops on one memory, one I'm looking for, and regards it for a long time until a look of utter horror takes over his face and the memory recedes back into the bundles of who-knows-what. "Y-You! The young warrior, you have come to end me, to make me repent for my crimes against you! The divine commanded me to, the divine commands us all!"

"The divine this, the divine that," I groan. "The divine _what_?"

"The divine is the ultimate," he says meekly. "The divine is the master. The divine commands me, the divine commands us all..."

"What did 'the divine' command you to do?" I ask gently.

"Commander Stonewall Jackson, of the Confederate Army in 1862, one of the greatest Confederate commanders to serve in the Civil War of the United States of—"

"_Focus_, Mr. Saitou," I try. "The divine, is it a force or an entity or something?"

"I must not speak of it, I'll be destroyed! I want to live, I've had too many run-ins with the divine..." Saitou whimpers. "I must not speak, the divine with crush me, the divine will crush us all!"

"This isn't working," I groan, pulling my spell book from my back pocket. I flip through the pages after checking that the Securities and attendants around aren't paying attention to me. "Clear mind spell—_Soiléir agad aigne—nimhe agus luíonn—unwind agus unbind cad a choinnigh tú síos_."

A subtle green light flows from my mark and whirls around Saitou's head. He watches it move, and his thoughts suddenly relax and slow down. I begin to untangle the meticulously tied strands of thought. "Speak to me, Saitou. Something coherent."

"What you're doing, Forest... You're clearing it up."

"Clearing it up?" I ask. "Someone's tangled up your head, haven't they? And why are you calling me that?"

"Tangled it well, as it were. It's what I get for providing service to psychics."

"That's what I thought. No one in here is as twisted up as you. Tell me what happened. Why are you like this? Why do you keep talking about some godly force?"

"Not godly, Forest, the word I used was _divine_."

I piece it together almost immediately—I don't know why I didn't see it before. "Divine did this to you."

"_Crushed me_, as it were. He'll crush all of us eventually. I think that he belongs in here more than I do."

I pull on the spaghettied lines of thought, trying to free them so that he can put them in the right order. "Tell me about the operation you performed on my brother."

"A piece of metal to the leg? One of my finest works, I should say." Saitou's dark eyes, tinged green, stare off into the distance. "My business was always one that was up to no good. My job was to fulfill the needs of those who were willing to pay hefty sums in order to stay anonymous. I grafted prosthetic arms and legs for criminals, reinforced bones of convicts with steel, and the like. Divine called on my services to brace a young man's leg bone with a line of metal able to produce an electric substance."

"My brother," I say, almost through my teeth.

"Yes, I can detect the similarities between you and the young warrior."

"We have names—why don't you call us by them?"

"But I am—doesn't the name you gave me mean 'forest?'"

It does. "How do you even know that?"

"I've studied a great many things in my life, young lady, and learned more things than I should've liked. Let's return to your explanation; you may want to hear it all, and I'm not sure of how long you can keep me stable."

"I'm trying my best," I protest. "Your mind is like a box of tangled up cables and wires."

"Part of his ultimate scheme, as it were. As I finished my final graft on the boy, Sector Security began to catch those whom I'd previously served. I was traced and detained, but not before Divine twisted my mind into a bowl of noodles."

"I think I understand," I muse, tugging at the labyrinth of stretches and knots in his mind. "Divine didn't want Security to trace back to Evan and find out that he had a Satellite kid with him—they'd take Evan and shut him down. So Divine made you incapable of giving him up."

"_Precisely_." Wonder drifts through the holes in his brain. "I must ask what you are to have contacted me this way. I've been trapped within my own mind without a way out for some time."

"You could say I'm like Divine," I tell him, "just one part kinder and two parts more clever. Now, tell me about the mechanism you grafted."

"Did I mention it was my finest work? I must have—I truly am proud of it. He required a cylinder of metallic substance that could be safely inserted and used to reinforce the bone, as well as conduct a strong electric current at the push of a button. I developed a device small enough to fit in the designated space, provided Divine needed to break the boy's leg for proper insertion, and designed a trigger system built on sensors placed at strategic areas as well as a sort of portable trigger."

"The only way to turn off the current is through the portable trigger, right? Divine buried that."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. The sneak hid it far from where his boy could look for it, with someone who couldn't possibly give it up that they had it."

"Are you going to leave me hanging there, or what?" I demand. I've successfully uncoiled one thick strand of his thought, setting it free to go back into its place.

"Why, _me_ of course. The insane designer of the daft thing."

"That's almost genius," I breathe. "Lie about burying it to send someone off on a wild goose chase, when it's really with the wacky creator who couldn't tell you where he had it if the damned Earth stopped spinning."

"Quite, Forest, quite. I suppose Divine never expected someone who could make me sane to come looking for it."

"He thinks he expects a lot of things," I reply, pulling at a second strip of thought. "Where do I find it?"

"It was among my belongings when I was admitted here—I could go to my chamber and get it for you, but I'm not sure I'd be let out again."

"Dang... That means I'll have to get it."

"How do you plan to do that?"

"I'd like some directions to your living space."

"Very well, Forest, watch carefully." I tug the second strand of his thought loose and it spins a memory of the room we're in. A door to the left of the space swings open into a long plain hallway with barred windows on the left. The memory then moves forward to the end, then turns to the right and stops at the fourth doorway to the left. A series of locks click and this door swings open, letting me into a plain room with a bed, a sink, and a nightstand. The drawer to the nightstand opens to reveal what looks like a thick metal disc. The memory slips out of my grasp as I manage to pull it free from the tangle of different strings and lines.

"That's it?" I ask quietly.

"Quite. I must thank you, by the way, for giving me this reprieve from my forced state of insanity. I don't believe I've thought a coherent thought in a long time, nor have I had the pleasure of a visitor since my fiancée passed."

"She passed away?" I ask. "I thought she was only missing."

"Another of Divine's plans. My darling Yuuki was stolen from me because she was willing to take care of me in my mentally scrambled state..."

"Divine just _loves_ to screw over people's lives, doesn't he?"

"Perhaps. As I tried to tell you earlier, Divine crushed me and he will crush everything else if he gets the chance."

"Sorry about all the shit you've been through," I lament, pulling on a third coil of thought. "I might not be able to unwind everything in your head right now..."

"You've done the best you can, though I would love for you to come by again and make it possible for me to leave this place."

"It's a deal. It's the least I can do for you helping me now."

Suddenly a hand yanks my spell book out of my lap—my focus breaks and the green light disappears. I get tangled in Saitou's thoughts, and he seems to have no idea that we just had a coherent conversation.

The hand belongs to the Sector Security officer I came in with, who flips confusedly through the pages. "What the hell is this? You were just... It's a bunch of lines!"

"Lines?" Saitou exclaims. "Lines, perhaps in a stage production or the mathematical element used to estimate the lengths and widths of approximate planes?"

"Lines representing numbers, _Uncle_ Saitou," I say brightly. "Why don't you tell our friend about them?" I jump up and grab the book from him, using the momentum to send him colliding with my chair. The rest of the mental patients in the room fall silent and watch us ominously—it's now or never.

I run towards the door I saw in Saitou's vision and force it open—my mark sends off a torrent of sparks and the ground freezes behind me. I'm halfway down the hall when I hear people losing their footing on it. I turn to the right and get to the fourth doorway, but the door doesn't open. It appears to take some sort of DNA encoding.

I flip nervously through my spell book as shouts echo through the hallway. "_Geata, unseal_!" The door flies open and I dive across the room, yanking the drawer to the nightstand open and grabbing the metal disc. The footsteps grow closer and I fumble with the disc, slipping it into my pocket and throwing open another page of the book. "_Bequeath dom shroud, ceocháin an ghleann_!" The force of the spell explodes around me, and I disappear so quickly that I feel dizzy.

The Security from earlier bursts inside. "W-Where did she go?!"

I slip around him and make a break down the hallway, struggling to keep the spell up as I squish past other Securities and attendants who have rushed to see what's going on. My heart is pounding as I come back into the white room and see Saitou scribbling a bunch of badly drawn trees on the empty side of the chalkboard. "The forest is controlled by the divine," he mumbles, "everything is controlled by the divine..."

_I_ will _not_ be controlled.

I rush into the elevator, which has conveniently been left open by someone or something, and punch the closed button before I release the spell and attempt to compose myself before the elevator can open back up on the ground floor. Then I stuff the spell book back into my pocket and saunter out into the lot.

"How was your visit?" The grumpy guard at the front asks.

"It was good," I tell him as calmly as I can. "It took him a bit to remember me, but when he did he was glad I came around. I think I'll come back soon." I amble to my duel runner and put my helmet on. "Have a good day!"

He waves me off uncaringly, and I hit the gas to get as far away as I can before anyone can stop me. I'm not sure I've ever been so terrified of getting caught by someone in my life—my head pounds from the excitement, and the only thing I'm thinking of is that I have the sensor._ I have the sensor. _

I've almost left Daimon completely when the realization finally settles over me and I come to a complete stop, lay down over the back of my seat, and just stay there inhaling and exhaling for a long time. For the first time in the past three days, I can actually breathe.

As I lay there, I pull the disc from my pocket. It's about the size of a CD and as thick as a 500 page novel. There's a dial in the center with notches going up by fives—I'm thinking that turning it will create the electric current Saitou mentioned, but I don't want to find out.

"You're our ticket out," I mumble, like the thing is living rather than a hunk of cold metal. "Don't let me down."

I slide it back into my pocket and take one more deep breath before I keep going, like I always do when I have nothing else planned.

I ride all the way back around to Arcadia—Kawasaki seems to be absent from his normal post at the track, which means I can probably take my runner back into storage without an issue.

I pull it inside, secure the back compartment, and tuck the sensor into the breast pocket on my jacket. I want it to be as concealed as possible when I step inside the movement, just to be safe.

With a breath, I go inside and prepare to tell Evan the good news. The elevator ride up is thankfully brooding-side-character-free, thought the floor is still a bit wet from where I froze him despite it being a little over an hour ago.

I get up to our floor and knock on Evan's door before I go inside. I'm met with almost a grisly sight when I enter.

Despite only having three days to catch up, I've learned that Evan is a very messy person—same as me. He's constantly misplacing things and leaving messes wherever he steps and being totally content with that mess while still having a place for everything.

His room is spotless when I open the door. Books are stacked against the desk, papers arranged neatly on the side table, and my literal other half is nowhere to be found.

I'm busy trying to figure out what's happened when a knock suddenly comes on the open door behind me. I spin around; Divine spins the black buttons holding his shirt cuffs together. "Looking for someone, Silvan?"

The air around me begins to—very literally—boil. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing of consequence. He'll just be residing up on one of the higher security levels for a while, until I get back what rightfully belongs to me."

My heart thuds in my chest—does he know about the sensor?

He clears his throat. "Some... _Things_ went missing from my office this morning. Perhaps you have an idea where they've gone."

The files. I don't know why I'm relieved, because I'm still in a bad situation. "Aw, something went missing from your office? Shame. Guess you'll have to pick up some new ones."

"Don't play dumb with me, Silvan. Bring me back what you took and nothing will happen to your brother."

"Blackmail, huh?" I retort. "_Cute_. I didn't do anything. Just set Evan loose."

Divine glares daggers at me and stalks away. As soon as he's gone, I close the door and crouch to peer under Evan's bed. "_Teacht ar shiúl, ceocháin_."

A green mists spits out from underneath the mattress—nine beige manilla folders appear out of thin air, and I let out a breath. Nothing has gone _really_ wrong yet.

I recast the hiding spell and get up off of the floor—I need to find Evan. I pull open the door to his room and peek outside. No one comes, so I make my way to the elevator. I press the button up and wait for it to open when Seria suddenly appears beside me.

"_My brother_," I mumble. "Where are you keeping him?"

She doesn't answer, but when the door opens she presses the button to go up to Divine's floor as well as a floor four levels above that. I nod in appreciation, and we stand in silence as the elevator climbs.

She steps out on Divine's floor and I come out on mine, into a long hallway that splits into three forks. I randomly pick and go jogging along the corridors, whisper-shouting Evan's name as I go.

I get no answer until I've passed over the leftmost corridor and moved onto the right. "Silvan?"

I crouch beside the second door. "Evan? What happened?"

"Not long after you left, Divine came in and tried interrogating me about the files." His voice is barely audible—I have to press my ear to the door in order to hear him. "I wouldn't tell him anything, so he stuck me in here until you got back."

"Here I am," I say matter-of-factly. "I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. Don't worry, I'll get you out."

"You said that two hours ago, and look where we are," he retorts.

"Hey, be quiet—I am going to get us out of here because I just happened to have stumbled across a certain device necessary to our escape."

"Expound?"

I explain in as detailed a format as I can about my visit with Saitou. The Securities, the mental facility itself, Saitou's twisted-up mind and all the riddles he spoke in... Finally, I tell him about the trigger.

"You have it?" His voice is colored with surprise. "How is that possible?"

"Divine hid it with Saitou," I explain. "After twisting his mind up, he knew that if he put the trigger with Saitou, it'd be safe. Anyone looking for it would be busy digging up holes in the ground and never suspecting that a mental patient had it with him."

"You have a point. Have you figured out how to work it?"

"No, and I don't really want to press anything. I'll have to tinker with it tonight."

"If I remember correctly, there's a deactivation switch somewhere on it or inside of it. It's what I can recall from the guy explaining how it worked to Divine."

"I'll figure the rest out," I tell him. "Meanwhile, we need to figure out a way to break you out of here."

"You _can't_ give him the files," he says quickly.

"I know—I'm not going to. I just have to figure out some way to make a deal with him."

"This might be a stupid and hypocritical idea, but I think there's a copy machine on the fifth floor. You could always copy the files and give him the other ones."

"Not bad, but I'm not sure I want Divine to have that information ever again. Let's make that Plan B."

"All right..." It's silent between us as we sink into thought. My brain's pretty fried from how I've used it today, so I just listen to him think to fill the space.

"What have you been doing in here while I was gone?" I ask lightly.

"_Nothing_," he groans, "and the silence is so damn _boring_!"

I laugh. "Not even a sign on the wall you can read over and over?"

"Literally nothing! I've been taking periodic _naps_, I'm so bored."

"Wow, _naps_! You're not kidding!"

"Stop making fun of me," he retorts. "I'm _dying_ in here—the walls on the sides are glass, so I can see through to the other side, but there isn't anyone or anything I can see from here. There's just a bed and a sink, and I feel like I'm in prison."

"In retrospect, we sort of are," I point out. "Just with better food and more space to breathe."

"That's a matter of opinion," Evan groans. He sounds exhausted. "I can't think right now, I'm still processing your story."

"I know," I say. "Take a nap or something—I'll stay here until you fall asleep."

"You don't have to."

"Too bad, I'm staying."

He exhales, knowing that it's pointless to argue with me, and conversation between us ceases again.

I listen to his thoughts grow quiet and short, beating restlessly against the walls of his brain, and eventually fall asleep with him.

As always, sleep is everything but dark and dreamless.

I see a wide, flat expanse of dark gravel. I recognize the terrain from years of dicking around with my friends in it—it's the badlands of Satellite.

The dirt crunches under my boots, and I walk along a familiar path towards the southwest heaps. Suddenly, a heat forms along my mark. I wait for it to light up, but for some reason it doesn't.

In the distance, the sky comes alive as a purple fire cuts an unfamiliar shape into the dust clouds overhead. I move to see what's going on, when my mark begins to throb at the beat of my racing heart. _Still no glow._

Then someone is shaking me awake. I open my eyes to find Aki, her cognac eyes examining me. "Silvan? What are you doing here?"

I stare at my arm. There's still no glow, and the pain is ebbing slowly away. It's all very odd. "Sorry... Guess I fell asleep." I put my hand against the door at my back and knock on it gently. If I listen carefully enough, I can hear Evan knocking back. "I came to check on Evan, and I guess I fell asleep."

"Oh, that's nice of you. I hope he feels better soon..."

"Feels better?" I ask.

Aki blinks at me in confusion. "Divine said he had the flu and had to be quarantined."

_Typical_. "Oh! That's right. Sorry, I just uh... Zoned out for a second. I must not be totally awake yet."

Aki laughs lightly. "Come on, let's head upstairs. You were down here for a long time, and it's getting late. If you want to go back I sleep, you should probably do it somewhere more comfortable than against a door."

_Late_? How long have I been asleep? It felt like only a few seconds. "Right." I knock on the door again. "See you in the morning, Evan."

He gives a weak, fake cough from beyond the threshold. Looks like I'm not the only one keeping up the pretense.

I follow Aki upstairs. "I didn't see you much after you left the arena," she tells me. "What did you do all day?"

"Mostly fiddled with my duel runner," I lie. "I haven't touched it in a bit, so it needed some major tweaking. After that, I came back looking for Evan and I found out that he'd contracted the flu. I was sort of tired and fell asleep chatting with him."

"I see," she says as we step into the elevator. I press the down button. "I think Divine is arranging something else to get the movement out in public, you know since the Fortune Cup is over."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure. He's meeting with some people and he wants me to be there when he does."

"Sounds interesting. You'll have to tell me about it when it happens."

She opens her mouth to answer, when a sudden silence settles over us both. I'm not sure why we both fall quiet, but I know that I've felt something that's made me shut my mouth. It's like feeling the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when lightning is in the air. An oncoming storm we both sense.

Suddenly Aki's mark lights up like a Christmas tree, mine following not soon after. Only, this time, the pain isn't in my arm—it's a searing, jabbing agony buried in and around my stomach and waist.

It's so terrible that I can't support myself anymore; I sink to my knees and curl into a ball. It feels like someone's stabbing me. Like I'm a towel being wrung out. Like I'm being trampled by something. Like bones and muscles are almost pulling away from each other until I've been stretched to the point of breaking.

I can't hear myself or anyone around me, only see the blurring face of Aki pass me by as the elevator door opens and she screams for help.

My mark, her mark, the lights twisting together and becoming one until they decide they're no longer compatible and they let each other go—it's a never ending cycle, and it's the only thing I can focus on to keep myself remotely conscious.

Then I'm falling, rolling over myself with my useless limbs flying around me and preventing my entire weight from settling in the hot ground. Someone is laughing, but it's not a laugh that's frequent among packs of teenagers on a Friday night—it's someone mercilessly insane cackling their lungs out and absolutely _dying_ of happiness because they're so _glad_ to see someone in pain.

It hurts every time their voice rises; gravel digs into the skin at my sides. My body flops over onto its back and I'm not sure if I'm unconscious or if the sky is just pitch black. Shapes and shadows move into the foreground, too familiar but not enough to be recognizable. I don't know what's happening, only that I'm so strained and tired and hurting and worried beyond belief for a reason I'm not sure of.

My muscles move on their own, shaking and spasming and reaching for something to hold onto when I know there's nothing to grab and my body is stiff and unable to move at all.

The pain focuses on one point, a particular spot on the right side of my waist, right where something important and necessary for me to continue living must be.

Then, suddenly, _fear_—a torrential downpour of it. I'm so utterly terrified of something I can't see and I don't know why but that just makes me even more scared. What's happening to me? Will I be all right? Have I hurt or worried anyone?

The feelings don't seem like mine, mostly because it feels like they're being forced upon me. Maybe they are. I can't tell because everything's been so twisted together—not unlike the spaghetti of wires and thoughts that Divine once turned Saitou's mind into—and I can't tell up from down or right from left or this from that.

The fear and the agony combine into something even worse—I'm shivering in my stone cold body while I'm trying to push away the feeling. I'm beginning to think that it's no use and it'd be better for me to just die.

Right when I think I'm going to give up, the heat and light around my mark rise in a rush of fire and wind until they finally fall silent. Feeling pours back into me, and the silence of my sigil is terrifying. Something isn't right.

Sound and color return, leaving the taste of metal and blood on my tongue from where I've bitten through it—Aki is screaming to the point where she's begun to hiccup. I see that Seria and Jeiricho have rushed to the opening of the elevator to see what's going on. Divine suddenly rushes up to the entrance as I'm realizing that my face is wet with tears. "What's going on here?!"

Aki sees my eyes focusing on her, and her mouth twitches from her sad curled lip into an open mouth, ready to speak. I don't even know how or why we say it, much less at the same time, but we do.

"Y...Yusei."

* * *

**Was that too much? I hope not. A lot more happens next chapter. **

**Saitou, Jeiricho, and Darragh are all characters that I created myself, but they'll definitely be important later. Maybe not Saitou for an extended period of time (he's old enough to be Silvan's grandfather), but Jeiricho and Darragh will be progressively more important during the WRGP and Ark Cradle arcs (respectively). **

**All of the dates mentioned lack a year, mostly because 5D's is obviously set in the future, but not with any exact year. **

**Silvan's name actually does mean 'forest,' or 'forest dweller.' Evan's means 'young warrior.' Both are Celtic names, which is sort of a tribute to the other Celtic things I have in here. Saitou, in the future, will probably call everyone else by their name meanings rather than their actual names.**

**I've never really liked how Seria is portrayed in the games and other fan fictions, because I like to think that she has a story and a dislike of the way things go despite having a front seat to Divine's madness. I'd like to think that she grew up with him as his best friend and promised to be that until the end of time, but now that he's a different guy she sort of regrets the decisions she's made and how she's helped him. Maybe she thinks Divine can be saved, too—idk. That's probably the main reason why she's being such a friend to Silvan now. **

**I know I've said it a couple times before, but in the next chapter, ****_shit will go down._**** Be prepared. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	11. Escape

**Hey everyone—I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Fear," I mutter. "It hurt more because I was afraid."

"A typical response," Evan answers from behind the door. "People are afraid of pain, but fear makes it worse."

"I've been in worse pain before, Evan, just because of the mark. Now, I don't know why... But I don't think that was my mark causing me pain."

"Fair point... Tell me what Yusei has to do with it."

"We were in the elevator, Aki and I, and once everything was said and done we sort of just said his name at the same time. She told me that it felt like he was in trouble, but I felt like he was in pain."

"You think you were having some sort of pain split?" Evan asks. I hear him tapping his fingers impatiently on the tile floor.

"Something like that. I can't explain it."

"Christ, I miss all the action."

"You didn't miss much."

I think I've been awake for a long time now—it's late in the afternoon, maybe four, and I've spent my day ambling around doing nothing and dwelling on last night. I didn't really sleep at all after the episode in the elevator, and this is the first time I've talked to Evan today. I've been so worried about what I might see in my dreams, what other pain I might feel.

"Silvan, remember when you said that you could sense me alive from across Satellite? And I could sense you?"

"Mmhm."

"Maybe it's a similar thing. You know, ours is probably because we're twins, but maybe you just spent so much time around him that you just sort of forged a weird link."

"That sounds sort of far-fetched. Ours is a psychic link—maybe it was because of our marks...?"

"But then, wouldn't Aki have felt that pain, too?"

I groan and bang the back of my head against the door. "Stop ruining my hypotheses with logic... This is all so surreal and weird."

"I don't know, Silvan. There are a lot of unsolved mysteries we've stumbled into over the last few days. It's best to address them one at a time, starting with our most important one."

"_Right_." I touch the sensor in my breast pocket. "I got up this morning at 3 or 4 and started fiddling with this thing. I pretty much just took a look at the outside—I need my tools to crack it open and see what's going on inside."

"Did you figure anything out about it?"

"Besides the fact that I'm pretty much holding your life and the key to escaping this hellhole in my hands? Not really."

"What's the first setting on the dial?"

"5," I tell him. "It goes up to 100."

"I wonder what 5 entails..."

"Evan," I warn. "Don't you dare think what I think you're thinking."

"Quiet with the alliteration—turn the dial to 5 and see what it does."

"Evan—"

"Just do it, I'll tell you if it does anything."

"I'm not going to hurt you with this thing!"

"I'll tell you to turn it off," he says easily. "Just trust me!"

I growl a little. "Brace yourself."

"Mmhm."

I clench my teeth like I'm the one about to get shocked and gently turn the dial up to 5. For a second, I hear nothing and I think that 5 is safe and weak, when Evan suddenly bangs against the door like he's been startled. "_Holy fucking—_turn that thing off!"

My hands shake as I flip the dial back to 0. I struggle to keep them steady again. "A-Are you all right?"

"_Owwww_," he whimpers, like a little boy. "I was thinking it wasn't that bad and then, boom, half of my leg's on fire..."

"I'm definitely not touching that again. I think I'll go down to the track and grab my tools so I can pop it open."

"Be careful," he grumbles; he sounds almost upset.

"It was your idea to turn the thing on in the first place!" I remind him.

"I thought it wasn't going to be that bad!" He protests.

I get up from the door and shuffle the heel of my boot against the tile. "I'll be back in a while."

He grunts uncaringly and I make my way down the hall to the elevator, when I suddenly notice Jeiricho standing in front of a door at the left end of the hallway. He has his hands folded behind his back like a prison guard.

"Jeiricho?" I ask. "What are you doing?"

"Divine asked me to stand guard here," he replies easily. "He's got a couple of people here on lockdown."

"Who?" I ask. I wonder for a moment if it's a member of Arcadia or someone else.

"I dunno. A couple of duelists."

"Weird," I say. "Were they here on business, did they just walk in or something?"

"Beats me, but whatever they did to piss Divine off must've been major. I don't think it's easy to upset him."

On the contrary—I think it's very easy to upset Divine, especially given how frequently I seem to get under his skin. "That's too bad for them." I can't help feeling curious to who's behind the door. "Mind if I take a peek?"

"The other room has a glass window in it—you can look through that way."

I pull open the door on the right, which is surprisingly unlocked, and peek inside. A smooth panel of glass covers one wall and lets me see through to the other side.

Collapsed on the floor, I see two people I least expected to see—Jin Himuro and Tenzen Yanagi. My heart skips a few beats—does that mean Rua and Ruka are here as well?

I shut the door. I can't help them now, not while Jeiricho is here on guard. I'll have to find another way.

"Yeah, they look like duelists all right," I say hoarsely.

Jeiricho yawns and stretches his arms over his head. "Right? Hey, I wanted to apologize again for Darragh—he's kind of, uh... _Sensitive_."

"What did I do to him?" I ask, laughing a little.

"He just doesn't take kindly to new people, especially those that Divine holds highly."

"Does he hate Aki as much?"

"I'm, uh... I'm not really sure."

"_Right_. Thanks for the apology, Jeiricho, but Darragh and I just weren't meant to be friends. I think I'm going to go downstairs."

Jeiricho seems disappointed now—I leave him there and go down the elevator, feeling twitchy. What does it mean that Himuro and Yanagi are here? Have they been hurt? What's the possibility that Rua and Ruka are next?

I stop down on the floor with Divine's office and boldly throw open the door, ready to spit every defense I have at Divine. The room is empty, though, save for Seria who's stacking papers onto Divine's desk. She looks up as I enter. "Yes?"

I try to calm myself down. "Has Divine brought any kids in today?" I motion to about my hip. "This tall, wide eyes, ponytails?"

Seria exhales. "Why is it that every loose end Divine attempts to tie up is always somehow associated with you?"

I'm not sure whether to take it as a compliment or an insult. "Guess I'm just special that way. Where are they?"

"The arena, in the viewing room. I'd hurry if I were you."

"Thank you." I rush back out of Divine's office and hop back into the elevator, where I travel back down into the arena level.

My breath comes out in white puffs—why does it always get colder every time I come here?

I rub my hands along my jacket sleeves and push the door to the viewing area open—Aki is inside, sitting nonchalantly on the couch, while I see Ruka with her face pressed against the glass. Both of them turn and see me come in.

"Silvan!" Ruka exclaims. Then she comes across the room and throws her arms around me—it's something I don't expect from such a reserved girl. "You have to help!"

"What's going on?" I demand, kneeling down to her. "Help with what?"

"It's nothing, Silvan," Aki says casually. "Divine is only testing a potential new member."

"Testing?" I cross the room to watch out the glass, where I see Divine on one side of the arena and Rua on the other. He's equipped with a lot of strange looking technology, like a helmet and a chain around his left ankle. "Aki, Divine needs to stop; Rua has no abilities. He's completely normal."

"You don't know that," she quips.

"Yes, I do—I would've sensed it. Tell Divine to stop, or Rua could get seriously hurt."

"Divine believes that he has psychic abilities," Aki protests gently. "I trust that he's worth looking into."

"Do you trust me?" I groan.

"Of course, Silvan."

"Then trust me when I say that Rua isn't worth this—Divine's a powerful guy, I can't see Rua faring well in a psychic duel."

"We never know until we try. If he's put into a perilous situation, any power he has could activate. I sense power in Ruka, and they're twins. You and Evan both have abilities, don't you?"

"It's not the same—"

"Why shouldn't it be?" She urges. "Just watch, Silvan."

I glance helplessly towards Ruka, who stares back in worry. Then I turn to watch the duel. "What turn is it?" I growl.

"Third," Aki answers.

"I can't hear anything," I mutter, tugging my spell book from my back pocket. "_Mo láthair aige Aistriú go dtí lucht féachana in aice_."

My ears pop, and I can suddenly hear the duel going on around me. It looks like it's Divine's turn. "I summon Psychic Snail in attack mode." He has one other monster and a face down card on his field, while Rua has one monster on his. "Psychic Snail, attack and destroy Morphtronic Radion."

Rua's only monster shatters, and he cries out. I cringe.

"You see," Divine explains, "psychic duels are worlds away from the duels you're used to. We're on a whole different level. Krebons, attack directly!"

The monster shoots balls of light from its many arms, and Rua goes flying. He lands heavily on his back, and I hear Ruka stop breathing for a moment.

"Stop," she pleads. "Stop hurting him! Why are you being so cruel?"

"It's a test," Aki says again. "If he's in a bad enough situation, any ability he has could come out of dormancy."

I bite my tongue. Here is Divine's cruelty right in front of her, and she's been taught to see it as a necessary act to pull more minds into the movement.

"Get up, boy," Divine calls. "If you truly value your life, you should attack me like death is a dog biting at your heels—show me if you truly have psychic power."

Rua, determined, pulls himself back onto his feet. I've been through enough pain in the past 72 hours, and even watching someone else go through something like this hurts me.

"I summon Morphtronic Remoten in attack mode! Then I activate Junk Box—this allows me to special summon one Morphtronic monster from my Graveyard! I'll choose Morphtronic Radion!"

A possible synchro summon? It could turn Rua's dueling situation around. Ruka and I can only hope that he pulls something that'll be enough.

"Now, I'll tune Morphtronic Radion with Morphtronic Remoten in order to synchro summon Power Tool Dragon!" Big, yellow, and a power drill for one of its claws. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before.

My mark throbs, but doesn't glow. Ruka's and Aki's stay extinguished.

"Next I activate Power Tool Dragon's special effect—I can add a random equip spell from my deck to my hand!" A card flies out of the slot in Rua's blue duel disk. "I equip Power Tool Dragon with Double Tool C&D to increase the power of my dragon by 1000!"

"Go, Rua," Ruka whispers hopefully.

"Attack Krebons, Power Tool Dragon!"

"Once again, I activate the special effect of Krebons—"

"—not this time, psychic guy! Because of Double Tool C&D, any effect activated during the battle phase is negated!"

Krebons shatters, leaving Divine with 1100 life points. I feel Ruka begin to grow more hopeful beside me, but a little voice in my head is still afraid that Divine is going to hurt Rua.

_The divine crushes everyone_, I remember Saitou saying. I'm afraid that Divine will crush Rua, too.

"I'll end my turn now!" Rua decides, and stares confidently ahead at Divine.

"Very well. I begin by activating Psi-Station; Now whenever I normal summon a Psychic-type monster, I can use this card to pay 500 Life Points and increase the summoned monster's attack by 300 and its Level by 1. Next, I'll summon Psychic Commander and use the effect of Psi-Station to boost its attack."

The room around me is silent—no one knows what to expect.

"Now, I'll tune Psychic Commander and Psychic Snail in order to synchro summon Mental Sphere Demon!" The monster rises out of a dark mist—the garbled feed I get from Divine's thoughts suddenly increases to something even more unrecognizable.

Rua's fear shows plain on his face. "Okay, fine, fine, but I can use Power Tool Dragon's special effect to negate its destruction by sending an equip spell to the Grave!"

"Think what you want to—I must applaud you for giving me such a hard time, but you don't seem to be the phenomenon you make yourself out to be. I trigger my face down, Battle Teleportation—I'm allowed to attack you directly."

The monster makes contact, and my focus breaks from Ruka's sudden desperate yell of concern. I look away when Rua collapses, and Ruka bangs helplessly on the glass.

Aki watches her—there's a softness in her eyes that I wouldn't have seen a few days ago, one that pities a person's pain rather than relishes it. I'm almost proud of her.

"Ruka," I say softly, crouching down to her, "Rua will be okay. I could find something to help him..."

"_Rua_," she cries weakly. "Rua..."

In some ways, I see me and my brother in Ruka and Rua. Two pieces of the same person, both with their own will and their own compulsive desire to protect one another... I cried like this when Evan disappeared.

I glance to the side, where Divine is telling something to Darragh—when he walks away, Darragh begins to remove the metal testing devices from Rua before carrying him away.

The door swings open behind us—it's Divine. He unhooks his duel disk from his arm and sets it on a table. "Well, what a surprising sight. I haven't seen you all day, Silvan."

"I've been taking it easy," I say vaguely. "I didn't know we had guests."

"Yes, we do. Perhaps they'll get along well with you and your brother, despite the young boy having no trace of psychics. Maybe you'd like to show Ruka upstairs. I'm sure she's aching to see her brother."

"Sure," I say flatly. I put my hand at Ruka's back and guide her out of the room, to the elevator. I see her putting on a brave face as the door closes and we slide upstairs. "It's ok, Ruka—I know you're worried."

"Rua will be okay," she tells me, but it sounds more like she's telling herself. "I'll be fine, too."

"If you say so. What are you guys doing here? I saw Himuro and Yanagi collapsed earlier..."

"Rua thought that it would be a good idea to round up the Signers. All we really needed was Aki, so Himuro arranged to meet with Divine... Then he used this gas to make us fall asleep and I woke up to see him dueling Rua."

"There are a lot of bad things that go on within these walls," I say, pulling the sensor out of my breast pocket. "Like _this_."

"What... Is that?"

"It's the sensor that I can use to deactivate the lightning rod in Evan's leg. The thing we can use to get out of here."

"Really?" She breathes. "That's _wonderful_."

I slip it back into my pocket before the door can open on the floor where Evan is. "All I have to do is figure out how to shut the trigger off, and Evan and I can leave."

"Us, too. We're going to need help getting out of here..."

"I was planning on getting out of here in a couple weeks," I sigh. "Maybe you're right—maybe we need to leave as soon as possible. But I'm not sure if Aki would come with us. I'll have to persuade her somehow."

We come into the hall where Evan is and I see Darragh closing a door. He spots me and his face, already flat and emotionless, takes a dive towards displeasure. The water in the air around me bursts.

"Your brother's in here," he tells Ruka monotonously.

"I'm not Divine's favorite," I say immediately, before he can make a break for it.

He scoffs. "Excuse me?"

"Darragh, I don't know what I did to you to make you despise me so deeply, but I am _not_ Divine's favorite. I am _not_ Aki—I can _not_ and will _not_ be controlled. Tonight, I'm going to take Rua and Ruka and my brother and the two old guys down that hallway, and we're going to get the hell out of this place. You and Jeiricho are welcome to come with us, but only if you give me a freaking chance and agree to work with us."

He stares at me for a long time. "If I agreed to help—and I'm not saying I am—what would you have me do?"

Half a smile pulls up my lips. I knock on the door that leads to Evan's room. "Ev, you listening?"

"Got nothing else to do," he answers bleakly.

"We're getting out of here. _Tonight_. After this, I'm going to leave Ruka with you and Rua, Evan. The three of you will wait here while I go down to my duel runner and find a tool that'll let me pop the sensor open. Jeiricho stays with Himuro and Yanagi, Darragh stays with you three, and they both keep watch for Divine. I persuade Aki to come with us, provide a distraction for Divine while the rest of you slip out, and I'll join you later on my duel runner. Sound like a plan?"

"Could use a few tweaks, but it's good for now," Evan remarks. "What made you decide tonight?"

"The stakes have gotten higher," I tell him. "We have more people to get out now. I'm not going to wait until the rest of my friends show up, too."

Darragh pushes open the door beside the one he just closed. "Ruka can stay in here. It's close to her brother. I have an edit to your plan, Blondie, and it's that I'm coming with you."

"Have it your way." I lean down to Ruka. "I'll be back for you, all right? Just remember to stay calm and wait for us to return."

"Signers are supposed to save the world," Ruka notes. "Part of me is questioning why you aren't one of us, because you seem more than capable of doing that."

"That's doubtful," I laugh. "I'll leave the world saving to the professionals. I'll be better focused on saving people I know rather than people I don't, anyways."

Ruka steps into the room and closes the door behind her—it clicks, which is probably an automatic lock.

"Come on," I say over my shoulder to Darragh. "We have work to do. You know anything about technology?"

"That'd be an understatement," he says smugly.

I fast walk back along the floor, to the other end of the hall. "Hey, Jeiricho! I have a proposal for you."

He looks up from where he sits against the wall in front of Himuro and Yanagi's door. "What proposal?"

"How'd you like to get the _fuck_ out of here?"

He leans forward. "...I'm listening."

I tell him my plan, Darragh lingering impatiently in the background. When I'm done, Jeiricho frowns. "I'd have left already, but like I said before—where are we supposed to go?"

"Anywhere," I tell him. "_Everywhere_. You say that you're freer here, but the world is huge, and you're one person with the ability to do something great. You'll have more space and more opportunities to do whatever you want out there—don't let what Divine says about people hating psychics get you down. If you show people that you have something to offer them, how can they hate you? And how are you going to know what you have to give to the world if you never go to find out?"

"I like you, Silvan—you've got something special about you that I can't really pinpoint. I'll go along with your plan, only because I know you alone have the power to combat Divine."

"I know how to get under his skin, too," I say. Jeiricho smirks a little, remembering our earlier conversation. "Will you stay here until we get back?"

"Sure. When your friends wake up, I'll be sure to explain things to them, too."

"Thank you," I say. "Come on, Darragh."

"Don't tell me what to do," he grumbles, but still follows me down to the elevator. I scoff, and we stand there in silence. I notice that he still stands away from me.

"Sorry about freezing you," I tell him blankly.

"_Whatever_."

"Don't play your stupid tough-guy game with me. Where I come from, when someone apologizes, it's customary to accept it."

"Maybe we're just from different places," he grunts.

Right. Because you find so many well-mannered people in Satellite. I have Martha to thank for manners, and judging by the level of indifference here, she'd probably hit Darragh and half the other people in Neo Domino in the face.

The elevator slides open on the ground floor. Darragh tags along beside me as we go outside.

The sun is already beginning to go down, and it's only a bit past 4. It's probably because it's winter, but it's also been the warmest January I've ever witnessed.

We head over to the track. Darragh stops when we get to the gate. "Kawasaki isn't here."

"So? It's not like we need him to open the doors."

"Right," he retorts. "He locks them every night."

"It's not that late," I say, scandalized. To our initial dismay, the doors of the storage are tightly locked.

"Told you," Darragh mutters. "We need to—"

"We don't need Kawasaki's help," I interrupt, pulling my spell book out of my back pocket. "_Geata, unseal_!"

The locks click and the doors to the shed suddenly fly open—Darragh is still standing still, bewildered, when I roll my duel runner out. "H-How the hell...?"

"No time for questions. Hold this." I shove my toolbox into his arms and pick out a handful of drill bits and screwdrivers. "One of these is bound to be able to crack this open."

Darragh accepts a few drill bits from me and I take out the sensor while we alternate trying to find something adept enough to let us see inside.

"Why did you join Arcadia, Darragh?" I ask suddenly. I'm not willing to stay here in silence and listen to the complaining in his thoughts.

"Are you expecting me to tell you my life story, or something?" He scoffs. "Not happening, Blondie."

"I have a name, and you know what it is," I point out.

"Doesn't mean I'll use it regularly."

"If I'm bringing you with me out of here, at least be civil," I grumble.

"Give me one good reason why I should."

I toss a few bits back into the toolbox and take out a couple others. "Here's the better question—give me one good reason why you should _not_ be civil with me."

It's silent, even in his mind.

"_HA_! You don't have a reason! So, why the hell are you treating me like I tried to drop kick you off a cliff when I haven't done anything to you?"

"You froze me to an elevator floor," he points out.

"That was because you were being stubborn and a dick," I shoot back. "And you unfroze, it's not like I stabbed you with an icicle."

He exhales, the end of his breath turning into an exasperated groan. "Is it uncommon to have no place to go?"

"I wouldn't say it's uncommon," I say warily. "At least, not where I come from."

"Where you come from sounds a lot better than where I come from."

"That's a matter of opinion."

"Whatever. I didn't have a place to go, this random guy shows up asking if I want a new life, so I say yes. I get sort of a place to call home, and the only thing I ever have to do is come when he calls and do what he says. End of story."

"Do all of you wear these robes?" I ask, staring at the outfit. It's sort of a three piece thing, a long-sleeved collared robe with a tunic and pants.

"Yes?"

"_Charming_," I retort. "Like a pretty _leash_."

"In retrospect, yeah. We're guard dogs."

"You seem like a take-no-shit guy," I muse. "If you're so unsatisfied, why haven't you left?"

"Is it uncommon to have no place to go?" He asks again.

"That was Jeiricho's same excuse."

"I know. Jeiricho's my friend—my only friend, actually. Even if I was willing to get out immediately, I wouldn't leave him here by himself."

"Wow, you do have a heart!" I quip.

"Shut up," he mumbles. "Jeiricho wouldn't leave unless we had a predetermined plan on where to go afterwards. So I've stayed."

"I understand. I wouldn't leave someone behind, either. That's the reason I've stayed here at all."

"Hasn't your brother been here for a long time before this?"

"Yes, but not by his choice. Divine wants to keep me here because I'm like Aki—more superpowered soldiers for his army, you know?"

"Seems like him."

"You are aware that Divine—"

"—is an evil, narcissistic, controlling sonofabitch?" He interrupts. "I'm well aware."

I give a short laugh. "Glad we're on the same page." I wiggle a flathead bit under the back face of the device—it suddenly pops off into Darragh's hands. "Got it."

"What is this thing?" He asks.

"Remember how Divine is an evil, narcissistic, controlling sonofabitch? Well, he took my brother when we were ten and put a sensor in his leg that'll electrocute him if he leaves the Arcadia grounds. This thing is the only possible way to turn it off."

"So you _didn't_ come here out of free will."

"Did you think I did?" I pull a pair of needle nose pliers out of my toolbox to poke around the inside of the sensor. I want to be careful not to sever any wires until I know what they lead to.

"I'd just figured. You were buddy-buddy with Aki Izayoi almost right away."

"I made friends with Aki because she needed a friend who wouldn't lie to her like Divine does," I lament. "Some people just need help. It has nothing to do with me being here."

"I don't get what the use is. She's as brainwashed as they come."

"Well, there has to be a way to help her. I've already seen a change of heart in her—anything is possible."

"You can't help _everyone_," Darragh objects.

"I can _try_," I shoot back. He stares absently at the ground—the sun is beginning to sink below the tops of the buildings in the distance."What's your beef with Divine, anyways?"

"Maybe I have a place to be and things to keep me busy, but being a guard dog also entails being treated like one."

"I see."

"Bet he treats _you_ pretty well," he scoffs.

"I've broken a bunch of his shit," I laugh. "If he didn't want my power, he'd have killed me already."

"At least someone is getting away with giving him hell..."

I sigh. "These look like hard drives to me..."

Darragh peeks over my arm. "Probably because it is. It's the hard drive of a digital camera—pretty simple way to build a shock system."

"With a camera's hard drive?"

"Yeah. Remove the camera circuit, discharge the capacitor, and smolder a five pin transformer, a diode, and a translator to it."

"Damn—that's not too far off from putting together the headlights on my duel runner. It's just that the energy isn't concentrated into light."

"Mostly because it's one of the easiest ways to create electricity. Spare parts work like a charm."

I scoff. "You don't have to tell me twice. How do you know this stuff, anyways?"

"I told you, Blondie—no back stories."

"Aw, and just when you were beginning to warm up to me," I retort. He rolls his eyes. I tap on a little red sensor. "This should be the emitter..."

"Over here is the output wire," he says, tapping a blue line. "I don't know what this box, is, though."

"But you know what everything else is?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I don't see why this thing is needed."

I poke the black box, about an inch wide and an inch long. "Will it work if I take it out?"

"It should."

I dig my pliers into the device and snap the box out, handing the rest of the sensor to Darragh. I find it ironic how, not too long ago he absolutely hated me, and now we're sitting on the pavement next to my duel runner while trying to save Evan's life like we've been friends for ages. "Hand me that flathead again."

He passes me the flat drill bit out of the toolbox once more and I jam it between the edges of the box to crack it open. Inside is a multitude of blinking lights and still functional buttons, even though we just severed it completely from the sensor itself.

"This doesn't look familiar to me," he mutters.

"It looks almost like a CPU for a duel runner," I muse. "Why would a shock system need a secondary hard drive?"

He's quiet for a moment, thoughts churning. "What if it isn't a secondary hard drive?"

"If it isn't, what is it?"

"It looks like a CPU—that's in charge of making sure a duel runner runs. This whole pile of..." He brandishes the pieces of the sensor in his hands. "..._stuff_... Already has something that makes it run—the camera hard drive."

"What are you getting at?"

"If it doesn't make the device work, what if it makes it not-work?"

"Like a kill switch?"

"_Exactly_ like a kill switch."

I examine the small piece of tech. "I already severed its wires."

"But it's still working. That's probably a secondary defense, in case someone thinks just taking it out will cause the sensor to turn off. You still have to activate it."

"How do you suppose I do that?" I retort.

"How do you turn a CPU on?" He shoots back.

"Put it in a duel runner," I grumble. "This doesn't help."

"Maybe it could?" He suggests, glancing around me at my duel runner.

"Oh, _hell no._ You are _not_ suggesting I slap a kill switch into _my baby_ and then see what happens."

"There's only one way to find out," he points out. "If you don't want to do it in yours, put it into one of the practice runners in the shed. It's word a try." I exhale sharply, which makes my bangs puff out. Darragh jumps up and disappears into the darkness of the shed, then comes back out with one of the practice duel runners. "C'mon. Let's try it."

"If you make me responsible for the murder of a perfectly fine and happy piece of machinery, I'll freeze more than your shoes," I grumble. I kneel and pop the main compartment open, then eject the CPU inside and gently insert the kill switch. As I close it, I flinch in anticipation of what might happen when the duel screen suddenly flicks on. A green background flashes, asking for a passcode.

Darragh sort of bows, like he's looking for a round of applause. "You're welcome."

"Shut up," I retort. "What passcode? How am I supposed to guess a passcode?"

"Don't guess it. Just give me a second." He sits on the seat of the duel runner and brings up a keyboard in the corner of the screen, then begins to type in a jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols.

"Are you... _Hacking_ it?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. What's the problem?"

Wherever Darragh came from, he must've come from somewhere like Satellite where everyone thirsts for information on technology. Maybe he isn't up to building a duel runner, but I'd say he's up to just about everything else.

"Ta-da," he says blandly a few moments later. On the screen, I see a scale of what I think is the Arcadia building and a green dot somewhere inside. It must be Evan.

"Okay, _Smart Guy_, how do we get him off?" I ask lightly.

"I'm not sure how to erase his location from the system, but maybe it's possible to hide it." Darragh starts to key in something else. I fiddle with the pieces of the sensor. Suddenly, he makes a noise like he's reached an epiphany. I flinch and glance at the screen. The green dot is gone. "Am I a genius or am I a genius?"

"None of the above," I retort flatly, "but thank you. I couldn't have done this without your help."

"I believe our escape is in order," is all he says. I reopen the CPU compartment and pull the kill switch out, dropping it to the pavement. "What are you doing?" Darragh asks suspiciously.

"I can't risk Divine getting this and resetting it," I tell him. Then I slam my boot onto the black square and it shatters with a metallic noise into a billion tiny pieces.

"Thorough," he replies. "Let's get back inside." As he rolls the other duel runner back into the shed, I screw the covering back on to the sensor and put it back into my breast pocket. Divine can't have this, either. My tools return to the back compartment of my duel runner, which Darragh wheels back behind the shed so that I can get to it easily after everything is said and done.

As he's coming back around, a window shatters on one of the upper floors of the movement building. It happens so quickly and it startles me so badly, I almost don't notice a body flying out towards the ground.

"Fucking _hell_!" Darragh exclaims, jogging over to see what the noise was. "What just happened?"

"Someone fell out of a window," I say hoarsely. I know they won't be surviving the fall, and it's too late for me to help. I'm too far away to do anything, even if my spell book did have something useful for catching falling people.

"Should we see if they need help?"

"That was a _long_ fall," I whisper. "I don't know if they could've survived."

Darragh sort of stands there, like he's waiting for me to give a final call, when a tremor rips through the ground under us. The sun falls below the horizon and casts an ominous shadow over us.

"What's happening?"

"I don't know!" I exclaim, trying to stay on my feet while the earth continues to shake under us. "It's not me!"

"Can't you stop it?"

"_I-I don't know!_"

A pillar of violet light ascends into the sky and cuts a wide path in the ground around Arcadia's land. My mark sends off a heavy shower of green sparks.

_Emotion, Silvan,_ I tell myself. _Spontaneous outpours of emotion. Come on._

My mark sparks again while a dark, ominous cloud comes to loom over the sky and steal away the last possible traces of daylight. A second pillar of light shoots up into the air far away and cuts a line to the south.

I feel the ground crack under me as I heave out every emotion I have—how much I freaking hate Divine, how desperate I am to get away from here, and how worried I am about my friends and how they could possibly be holding up.

The earthquake practically screeches to a sudden halt, throwing me and Darragh off of our feet. A circular crevice sits in the ground where I was just standing.

"What's with the light show?" I groan.

"I don't know... But I feel like if we're going to leave, we're getting a sign that leaving should happen right now."

"Good idea." I pull myself onto my feet and run off towards the front of the building, Darragh in hot pursuit.

Inside, a bunch of light fixtures have fallen and shattered. My boots scrape against the glass as we run through the halls to the elevator.

"Is it safe to go up?" Darragh laments once we get the door open.

"It'll have to be." We stand uneasily in the center on the ride up, when the elevator suddenly stops.

"_Wonderful_," he growls.

"Okay, okay, don't panic. We'll get out of here." I pull my spell book out of my pocket and flip through it.

"How?"

"Hold on to me," I order. Darragh eyes me cautiously before gently putting his hand on my shoulder. "_Ordaímse mo fhoirm a galú cosúil leis na farraigí agus condense i réimsí de mo rogha._"

Our forms shimmer and evaporate into liquid. I don't care where we go in the building, just as long as we're out of the elevator.

We land on the floor in one of the hallways, though I don't know which floor. Darragh brushes himself off. "What the hell is in that book?"

"Ah ah ah, back stories require back stories," I say. He glares at me.

"What do you suppose we do now?"

"Stage Two," I answer. "You go up, rendezvous with Jeiricho and the others. I'll get Aki."

He scoffs. "Goooood luck with that. Stairs are this way."

"Thank you," I retort. I follow him along a south corridor, to a door that opens to multiple flights of stairs. "Looks like we're on Floor 9. I'll meet you all later."

"Don't hurt yourself, Blondie."

"You too," I mumble indifferently. Then we part ways, Darragh going up to Floor 14 while I go down to Floor 7: where mine and Evan's rooms are. I'm almost positive Aki lives down there, too.

Despite what he says, I think dealing with Darragh was the hardest part of this entire escapade. He's stubborn, a know-it-all, and—Jeiricho's right—likes to play the dark and mysterious character. Talking to Aki should be easy compared to getting him to be civil with me.

Though, I will admit fiddling with the sensor was much easier with him helping. I'm still curious about where he learned what he did; maybe I'll pick his brain later.

I force open the door on Floor 7 and peer down the hallway. Divine is nowhere in sight. I pass Evan's door, and something dawns on me; when he gets out, he'll want to collect all of his knowledge. I should reveal the files so he can take them, too.

I shove open the door, leaving it wide open, and tear through my spell book. "_Teacht ar shiúl, ceocháin_."

When the green mists finally settle away from under his bed, I kneel down and pull the files out. I set them on his desk so that he'll see them right when he comes in.

"Silvan?"

I whirl around. "Aki!"

She peers into the room nervously. "What are you doing in here? Did you feel the earthquake?"

_Actually, I sort of stopped it. _"Yeah, I did. Crazy, right?"

"I don't know what's going on, but something doesn't feel right." She grabs nervously at her marked arm. "I can't find Divine anywhere."

_Maybe this is my chance. _"I haven't seen him either, but, Aki... There's something I need to tell you."

She narrows her eyebrows in worry. "What is it?"

"I'm... I'm leaving the Arcadia Movement."

It takes a moment for the words to finally sink in. When they do, a look of horror spreads across her face. "L-Leaving? Silvan, you can't do that! It's not safe, think of all the things that could happen to you—"

"I'll be fine," I say. "The world is big. Maybe too big for someone as small as myself, but I'll learn to accommodate. There are things to see, people to meet, bonds to form. And it isn't safe here anymore."

"Silvan," she says weakly, like she's being betrayed, "you can't just go... You can't just..."

"Leave you?" That's what the look on her face says. "I'm not going to leave you. I want you to come with me."

"You know I can't do that!"

"How do you know if you've never tried?" I press. "The world isn't how you think, Aki, and more importantly it isn't the cruel dark place that Divine wants you to think that it is."

"We've been over this, Silvan," she pleads. "Maybe someday I could leave Arcadia, but not anytime soon! Definitely not now! This is my home, and Divine is—"

"—nowhere to be found," I interrupt. "The earth is going nuts, the sky has all these ominous clouds in it, purple beams of light are destroying things, and Divine is _nowhere_ to be found." A clap of thunder echoes outside of the building, almost to prove my point. "But you and I, we're still here. It's just a matter of time before we aren't anymore."

"I _can't_, Silvan..."

"Divine can't help you anymore," I try again. "How could he know a thing about you or your mark? He doesn't feel its burn, know the bonds it forges."

"This mark made me who I am, Silvan," she insists. "It forged me a bond with Divine."

"Did you ever, for one second, think that _maybe_ the reason Divine ever accepted you into Arcadia is because of your mark?"

"_Silvan_!" Aki exclaims, shocked.

"Think about it, Aki. Your mark made you destructive and powerful, and Divine built Arcadia all around you. He built a group of psychics on one girl's mark and then convinced her that the only way to ever control it was through destruction."

Her face begins to harden.

"Aki... I'm leaving Arcadia. There's nothing you can do to stop me from going. I'm not leaving you behind—I'm asking to bring you with me." I hold out my hand. "Think of what we could do, together. We can show people that we're not monsters. We have something extraordinary to offer the world."

"I'm _not_ going, Silvan," Aki says. Her face is void of emotion, but I can see the deep-seated sorrow in her wide eyes.

"Aki," I whisper. "Please, listen to me..."

"No. Leave me alone. I'm finished with this conversation." She turns to leave the room, but I jump forward and grab her wrist.

"Aki, you're my friend—"

"I don't have any friends!" She exclaims, her voice jumping an octave.

I try not to pay attention to the moment of silence that follows her outburst. "You know that isn't true. You push everyone away who could potentially be your friend, but I'm still your friend no matter what you say to me or to yourself. I don't care how many times you try to push me away."

"Let me alone! Leave, get out, just like you want! I don't need you! I don't need anyone except for Divine!"

The pressure around me increases, and my eardrums begin to ache like they're about to pop. I try to stay calm. "No, Aki. I'm not leaving without you. Divine can't be the only person to understand you."

"_Get away_!" The air shifts around me, charging with a level of electricity. The water vapor in the atmosphere around me begins to bubble, and my mark sheds a shower of green sparks everywhere.

I'm sick of running and playing defensive—here I am sitting behind a proverbial locked door and trying to get through to someone who's never going to hear me unless I force my way in.

My mark sparks again, and Aki rips her hand free of mine. She meets my eyes, her face red and her hands clenched with the blistering of the claw mark on her right arm. The sorrow in her eyes has turned to remorse and betrayal. My mark comes alive, burning and setting my vision to a hot green fire. "I told you to get out—"

"No," I say harshly, and I close the empty space in the middle of both of us and lock her in my arms. I'm going to burst—I'm a live wire. It hurts so badly, and I want to burst into flames and burn out so that I don't have to feel the agony of being so close to her anymore, but I'm not the thing that matters.

Aki is shaking, but not from anger. I can feel what budding animosity she could've had for me ebbing away. "Silvan, get away... I can feel the pain you're in..."

"Sometimes people have to go through pain for people they care about." The words come easier than I thought they would. I'm not paying attention to the feeling long enough to feel the full effects. "You've been abandoned too many times in your life, and I wasn't lying when I said I was taking you with me. You're coming whether you like it or not. I know that you're hurting, Aki, and even though you've given all of your trust to Divine, he isn't making it better. You need to take Yusei's advice: start loving yourself, and everything else will fall into place."

Our marks suddenly extinguish, like our sudden conflict.

"Silvan..."

I open and close my mouth, trying to figure out the words to say next. It's going to hurt, and she may not believe me, but she needs to know the reason why we're going.

However, before I can say anything else, the room starts to shake.

"_Another_ earthquake?" I exclaim. We run out of the room and into the hallway, where I can hear the walls creaking and feel the entire building swaying under my feet. I prepare myself to stop this one, when it suddenly stops on its own and a clear feminine voice echoes across the balconies.

"Aki Izayoi!"

Aki and I turn at the same time, to where I see a woman coming down the hall towards us. She's notably older than both of us, maybe in her early twenties, with long dark hair and a bindi pressed between her parted bangs. I've never seen her in my life, but Aki seems to recognize her.

"Aren't you that model? Misty Lola?"

"I'm honored that you recognize me, Black Rose. At least, who I used to be. Unfortunately for you, I recognize your face and I'm here to take my final revenge on you."

Aki glances towards me, searching for help. I'm not sure what to do. This Misty's mind reminds me slightly of Divine's, the way it twists and turns and won't let me see what she's thinking without making my head hurt. There's an underlying aura I can feel though, a sinister and almost death-like feeling that I can't shake away.

"I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about," Aki says, and I can tell she genuinely means it.

"_Liar_!" Misty's face becomes a horrible image of pure rage for a moment before it settles in repose and again becomes beautiful and quiet. "You must be in denial, Black Rose, because I know what is true and isn't true. It doesn't matter, because nothing you say can reach him now."

Aki takes a step forward and I want to hold her back because I know that getting near whoever this woman really is isn't a good idea. "W-Who are you?"

She can tell, like I can, that this woman isn't who she appears to be. There's something different, something off under the surface.

"A _Dark_ Signer."

I don't know why, but the words make me feel cold to the core. They're dangerous words, and though I don't know what they mean, I know that they can do terrible things.

"I don't understand," Aki answers flatly.

She begins to walk towards us, and my muscles tense for a reason I'm not sure of. "This meeting was fated, Black Rose. For five thousand years, the gods have been waiting for us to cross paths, and by accepting that fate I have been promised my vengeance. In the end, that must be our ultimate weapon to wipe you all from the face of this earth. _Vengeance_. All that's left is for us to fight."

When the final word escapes her mouth, a violet light seeps from some unknown force and gathers at a spot on her right arm in the shape of a lizard. My mark begins to glow at the same time, sending a white hot fire so much worse than any of the pains I've felt in the past week, in my entire life put together.

"Silvan!" Aki exclaims, rushing to keep me on my feet. She supports me until Misty's face is clear of the purple light and she's suddenly clad in strange robes—her eyes have taken on sickeningly dark corneas and what looks like a Detention Center mark flowers in burgundy upon her cheek.

"This isn't good," I breathe.

"No," Aki whispers. "It isn't." Her mark pulses red beside mine, sending my brain spiraling into a fiery haze.

I stare at the mark of the lizard on Misty's arm, then at Aki. A memory surfaces on the edge of my mental fire. "Aki... I think she's right. I think this was fated. In my vision, I saw Black Rose Dragon fighting a giant lizard."

"Y-You think?" Aki pulls me to my feet as another earthquake hits and makes us both stumble. I pull myself upright and remember all the things I still need to do. My mark sparks, a crevice forms in the floor beneath me, and cracks run up and down the wall. The earthquake stops, sending me and Aki stumbling in the other direction.

"What are _you_?" Misty asks indifferently.

"Couldn't tell you if I wanted to!" I exclaim. Aki pulls her arm from mine.

"Misty Lola, I'll duel you—but only if you agree to stop dealing so much damage on my home."

"Arcadia will survive," Misty replies. "Who knows if you will."

Aki pulls her duel disk from a sliding compartment along the wall that I never knew existed. She turns to me. "Silvan, this is going to be bad. I want you to get your brother and get outside the building in case something terrible is to happen."

"I'm not leaving you," I remind her.

"_Go_," she says again.

I grip my burning arm and take a last look at her insistent gaze before turning on my heel and running towards the stairs. I'm coming back for her.

Adrenaline is what gets me up seven flights of stairs without stopping, but when I do get up to the top I feel like my legs are about to fall off. Jeiricho spots me panting from one end of the hall. "Silvan! I need some help!"

I jog to his end of the hall. He and Darragh appear to be pulling at the door. "The earthquakes did something to the door—we can't get it open!"

"Stand back," I order. "Himuro, Yanagi? It's Silvan! Can you hear me?"

Himuro's voice drifts in. "Thank God, someone _sane_—I can hear you!"

"Get back, away from the door!" I wait for a few moments before I cast the spell for forcing the door open. "_Geata, unseal_!" For a few moments, nothing happens—then the door begins to creak and crack until it's forced back off of its hinges and it slams against the back wall of the cell. Himuro and Yanagi stare around the threshold at me. I stare back. "Are you coming, or not?"

The pair load out of the door. Himuro looks at Jeiricho. "You're the guy who's been outside our door this whole time?"

"Y-Yes sir," Jeiricho responds, intimidated by Himuro's height.

"Thanks for keeping us in the loop."

"N-No prob."

"We have to get Rua, Ruka, and Evan out now," I say quickly.

Darragh glances at me. "Where's Aki?"

"She's downstairs, dueling something called a Dark Signer."

Himuro and Yanagi exchange a look. "Uh oh."

"_Uh oh?_ What's uh oh? Oh God, don't tell me I have to worry about something else," I lament.

"We'll, uh... We'll fill you in later," Himuro answers. "I believe we were getting the _hell_ out of here."

"We are," I say. "Let's go get the twins."

I fast-walk to the other end of the hall, my group of friends following behind me until I get to Ruka's door. I knock repeatedly. "Ruka?"

"Silvan?" Her small voice asks.

"Get away from the door, all right?" I ask. I wait a second and cast the unseal spell, which tosses the door open. Ruka peers out at us. Himuro and Yanagi let out a collective breath and load into her room. I move to knock on Evan's door. "Ev? Clear away from the door, ok?"

I hear him vaguely shuffling away from the door before I cast the spell and throw it against the wall. He comes over from the bed in the corner. "Silvan? _Please_ tell me that these earthquakes have been because of you."

"Unfortunately not," I tell him. "Though I have been the one stopping them."

"I thought so. I'm feeling something seriously ominous going on."

"Try not to focus on that," I say. "We're leaving soon. Your shock issue? Fixed."

"Seriously? That's fantastic! You're _golden_, Sil!" He locks his arms around me, lifts me up, and laughs—it's the first time I've seen him truly happy since he disappeared.

"We're home free!" I tell him with a grin. Suddenly, a crash echoes from the next room. Evan and I glance at each other before running into Ruka's room, where the glass window between this room and Rua's has been shattered by a sofa. Jeiricho and Darragh stand off to the side, staring at the hole. I glance their way; Jeiricho points nervously at Himuro. "Himuro?" I ask. "Did you throw a sofa through this window?"

From the other room, he shrugs. "Yes?"

"I could've just opened the door," I mumble as Ruka shakes Rua awake. It seems like he's still exhausted from his duel with Divine.

"Where are we?" Rua asks groggily. "Ruka?"

"I'm here, Rua," she says. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah... Just sort of dizzy."

"Here, let's get out of here." Ruka helps him up, and they both climb through the shattered window for coming out into the hall.

A boom sounds somewhere in the distance. My mark sends off a literal tongue of green flame.

"_Whoa_!" Evan exclaims, jumping back. "This is getting worse...!"

"We really need to get out," Darragh points out. "It's not just about escape anymore—it's about escaping with our lives."

"Fair point," I say. "Let's get out of here."

"I want to stop and grab some of my books on the way," Evan remarks.

"I figured. I unveiled the files so you could take those, too."

"Great. Let's be careful going down."

"I'll lead the way," I say. Evan takes up the trail behind me, followed by Rua, Ruka, Yanagi, Himuro, and finally Jeiricho and Darragh.

Maybe halfway down the seven flights of stairs, Ruka cries out. My glowing mark spits another tongue of flame. I turn to her. "You ok?"

"Aki... Her duel," she says weakly. "Something is wrong..."

"She's on the floor we're headed to. Hang on."

We scale the rest of the stairs and I have to force the door open to get out onto the balconies. Across the way, Aki is deep into her duel with Misty. On her field are Black Rose Dragon and a couple of face downs.

The floor has been turned into what looks like a crumbling Roman Coliseum, and Misty's field holds a few face up spells and an odd looking reptile monster.

My mark pulses. Evan jogs down the hall to his room, the door still open.

"Silvan," Ruka mumbles, getting close to me, "there's another Dark Signer somewhere here."

"I know—I feel it too. I don't know where they are, though..."

"We need to get out of here soon."

I bite my lip and turn my head to Aki's duel. I don't know how long it'll last—how long I'll have to wait to get the hell out of here.

Misty raises her arm, dark mark glowing violet. "It's my turn, Black Rose! I activate Reptilianne Spawn—by removing my Reptilianne Gorgon from play, I'm allowed to summon 2 Reptile Tokens!"

A shudder falls through my body. I don't know why. Evan comes running back, holding an overfilled black backpack. "What's happening?"

"Stay close to me," I say without thinking.

"Now, by releasing both of these Reptile Tokens, I'm able to summon your ultimate doom! O God that resuscitated my life, now I offer you my soul—break free from the spell held over you for so long! Earthbound God _Ccarayhua_!"

The earth begins to shake again. I don't know if I have the power to stop this quake—there's something seriously ominous brewing in the air.

"Darragh! Jeiricho!" I exclaim. They come closer to me, about to question why I've called them, when my mark spits out multiple green flames and a dome of green light shoots out to encase our group. A red sphere of light envelops Ruka, Rua, Himuro, and Yanagi beside us.

"What's happening?" Aki demands as lines of purple light begin to streak across the battlefield. "Where's the monster you've summoned?"

Misty points out the window along their side of the hall. "Why don't you take a look?"

Suddenly, an enormous green eye peers into the building. The pain in my arm gets so intense that it's a huge task to stay standing. Evan notices me struggling to stay upright and he puts his hands on my shoulders to give me some support. He's stronger now that Divine doesn't have a hold on him—I like this new confidence.

The earth begins to shake again. Misty glances up. "It appears another duel has reached an outcome."

Not a second later, the roof of Arcadia suddenly gives out. A body flies down through the air, falling straight from the balconies into a strange purple fog. I didn't see the face, but Aki gives a scream that could wake the dead. "_Divine_!"

_So ends the reign of the corrupt divine. _"The building is falling apart," I say quickly. "You should get out of here."

Evan gives me an incredulous glare. "Sil, you can barely stand—I'm not leaving you here."

"Well, _I'm_ not leaving without Aki," I reply. "I can survive this building falling; I have my spells. You need to leave."

Himuro suddenly picks up the twins. "Don't have to tell me twice. We'll see you outside, Silvan."

He runs back to the stairs, followed by Yanagi. I turn and glare at Evan, Jeiricho, and Darragh. "_Go_."

Darragh doesn't object, and he's eventually followed by Jeiricho, but Evan keeps my gaze a little longer before following them down the stairwell.

When they're gone, I grip my arm to suppress the pain and make my way to the other hall. Aki is supporting herself on the balcony, sobbing over the side. I can't help but feel terrible about it, even though I really am glad that Divine got what was coming to him. There's no way he could've survived that fall.

"We'll continue this at a later time, Black Rose," Misty says smoothly. Her dark eyes turn to me. I suddenly feel frozen with fear. "_You_ seem to be a loose end in need of tying."

I don't know what it means. I don't really care.

The ground begins to shake again as the monster called an 'Earthbound Immortal' moves away from Arcadia. A piece of the ceiling above us suddenly cracks off and comes flying down towards Aki.

I lunge forward and pull her out of the way—the quaking makes me lose my footing, and I'm unconscious before I hit the ground.

I wake up what seems like moments later, and I feel my body being dragged across rough ground. The hand pulling me along tosses my body against a wall.

I can't move—it's almost like my muscles are frozen. Everything around me is cold and hard and uncomfortable, and I can't feel a thing. The fear makes it worse.

"This is the one you wanted, right?" _Misty._

"Yes... It is. Thank you for making this so much more simple!" _You sound... So familiar..._ "Yoo hoo! Wakey wakey, Silvan~!" A hand grabs my hair and yanks my head into a position that'll make me stare straight ahead. It hurts, but not enough to feel. The dark figure in front of me pulls his hood off. "Remember me?"

_Kiryu... Kyosuke..._

* * *

**Told you shit would go down. I want to get the next chapter in by next week. Ideas are coming out of me like a river. **

**Thanks for reading! **

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	12. Inquisition

**Two chapters in two days? Must be a new record or something. Anywho, enjoy!**

* * *

Kiryu's laugh echoes around the black empty space. His eyes are all I see through the darkness—they're a strange gold color, though I remember them being hazel. "Miss me? Of _course_ you did."

"Kir...yu," I manage, my lungs catching on fire every time I take a breath. "You... How are you...?"

"Alive?" He scoffs.

"I... Was going to ask... How you were here..."

"Of course! That's right, you still think I'm rotting in that godforsaken Detention Center!" He laughs again. The sound is harsh and cruel. Not the Kiryu I remember. "While you and the rest of the gang were busy building duel runners and becoming big-shot turbo duelists, I was _dying_!"

"Oh, Kiryu..."

"Don't _pity_ me." I hear the sound of his shoes scraping across the ground as he paces back and forth in front of me. "I'm stronger now. I was given a new opportunity for life, for _revenge_!"

"Re...venge?" My head is hazy. I'm not sure if I'm hearing right.

"Don't you remember?" Kiryu asks mockingly. "The day our little team broke apart?"

He pauses while I attempt to remember. All I can conjure up is Yusei's plan of escape, how he volunteered to take the fall as the leader of Team Satisfaction and get the rest of us out safely. "I... Remember...?"

"Evidently not—you lot turned me in, don't you recall?"

"Wh...at...? That's... That's not—"

"I _know_ what happened!" He exclaims. His voice echoes. My eyes still haven't adjusted to the darkness, but I know he's moved closer to me. "I saw those damned Securities letting you go, patting you on the back for leading them to me!"

"Kiryu, that's not—"

"Enough about the past. My hard feelings aren't towards you." I hear a smile in his voice. "I have a better plan for you. Let's take a walk." His hand closes around the back of my jacket, dragging my limp body away from the wall and in some direction I don't know. "What a surprise to find you in the Arcadia Movement, Silvan. I never imagined you'd align yourself with such underhanded people."

"It wasn't... Much of a choice," I say, coughing out the dry air moving through my lungs.

"Of course—I can understand being forced into something without much of an input." He sounds... Very bitter. Whatever misunderstanding he's operating under, I have a feeling that it's going to cost me and my friends something big.

"Where are... We...?" I choke. The air is bone-dry. I don't understand it—it's freezing cold, cold enough to make snow, but there isn't a drop of water in the air. The skin on my lips has cracked from the arid freeze.

"Home, of course," Kiryu scoffs. "The deepest, _darkest_ hole we could find in Satellite."

Wha—I'm back in Satellite? I can't be! What about Aki and the twins and my brother? How am I supposed to get back to them?

"W...hy?"

"It was the best place for us all to gather," he states, sounding bored. "The dark energy here is very..." He inhales deeply. "..._satisfying_."

"Kiryu... What _are_ you...?"

"I'm so _glad_ you asked!" He exclaims a little too cheerfully. "You see, because of my terrible time in the Detention Center, I was shoved straight to my deathbed. As I was about to lose my life, a spirit of darkness came to me and offered me new life in exchange for the destruction of the Signers." He shakes my body, like he's trying to jolt me from sleep. "You know what a Signer is, _don't you_ Silvan?"

"Don't... Don't talk to me like that," I say weakly. The way Kiryu speaks to me is condescending, and I don't like it. Even if I can't make him stop, much less do anything else, I want him to be aware that he's upsetting me. I know Kiryu isn't how I remember him, but there has to be at least a hint of his old self somewhere inside.

"_So_ sorry. Of _course_ you know." He sort of laughs sarcastically into his next sentence. "I accepted, but who knew that the Signer I'd have to destroy just so happened to be the person I most wanted to cause pain to!"

"Kiryu, they didn't... They didn't do anything to you—"

"Hah, it's almost cute how you've been brainwashed. I will have my revenge on Yusei for wronging me. This is where you come in!"

_Me?_

The darkness ahead suddenly gets lighter, just enough to see the path as it leaves us behind. Kiryu drags me out onto what seems like a platform crossing in all four cardinal directions. Below, a sea of multicolored lights pulses against a quiet black background.

Kiryu pulls my body up into his line of sight—it's the first time I really see him. His face has lost its health and become a pale, haggard, and angular version of what I remember it being in the past. The whites of his eyes have phased to black, and a burgundy Detention Center scar rips down the right side of his face. A smirk of what I think is content pulls at one corner of his mouth. "You're just as _beautiful_ as I remember. You've always been the looker, Silvan, and everyone's thought so. Even Yusei. I think you'll be even _more_ beautiful as a _Dark_ _Signer_. I wonder what he'll think of your beauty then." It's an offhanded comment that I don't know what to make of. I can't focus on it right now, anyways—I'm struggling for breath.

"Kiryu, _stop_." I find my voice as he pulls me toward the edge of the platform. "This isn't you, Kiryu."

"There's where you're wrong again, Silvan!" He exclaims. His face, illuminated in the light of the sea below us, twists into something horrible—something barely human. "And in a moment, it'll be you as well~!" Kiryu breaks into a round of malicious laughter—I recognize it from somewhere, though I don't know where.

I still don't have any control of my body; I can't stop him when he drops me onto the floor and kicks me over the edge. As I'm falling, I don't have the energy or the breath to scream. I can't think of anything—not a spell, an emotion, a sound that could trigger something.

I'm out of ideas and out of luck—my body hits the sea of light hard and gets sucked in.

Color explodes behind my eyelids. I'm being stabbed, trampled, set on fire, held underwater, covered in acid—every agonizing pain you can possibly imagine. I feel my muscles moving involuntarily, twisting and spasming painfully in every possible direction. My skin is flaying, my muscles bursting and my bones snapping one at a time until my entire body is broken under the pressure of the bright sea.

I can't breathe—the odd substance the light sea is made of sneaks in my nose and mouth every time I take a breath, sending me coughing and sputtering despite having no oxygen to waste anymore. My heart begins to pound so quickly, it's like it's going to pop out of my chest.

But my mark is the worst. It's like the skin is being scraped off, but it's been burned into everything below it so the entire segment of my arm is being destroyed.

The seven segment rainbow I've been seeing begins to fade slowly, the only lights I see being purple and green. They fight for dominance, two different ends of the spectrum with two different magnitudes of pain.

The purple is cold, unfeeling, and suffocating.

The green is hot, passionate, and breathtaking.

I can't tell which one is better and which is worse.

Everything around me is freezing cold, but the air around my mark suddenly begins to grow hot. Hot, like putting your hand on a burning stove or sticking it into a blue flame.

The heat spreads all over my body, setting everything I feel and everything that I see to a familiar and always ironically soothing green. My muscles slowly begin to unfreeze, some sense coming back to me. I'm able to relax enough to open my eyes.

A shape twists in front of me, though I can't make out what it is. It suddenly comes closer, close to my face, and I feel the heavy beating of wings.

It's a crow—a huge crow. It's about the size of a house cat, and it lets out a loud caw before receding from me to stay airborne.

"What?" I say.

It caws again, but this time I don't hear it. I hear something else.

_Me aimsiú. Me aimsiú._

_Find me. Find me._

The crow suddenly flies back in the direction it came in. Find me? What does that mean?

I go running after it, all feeling returning to my body, when I suddenly come into another dark space. There's a table there, like there would be in a dining room. A broken chandelier hangs over the center of the table, trimmed with what I think are cobwebs until I see a bunch of spiders crawling along the wood.

The light of three candelabras illuminates five different robed figures. I see Kiryu at one end, Misty at another, and the silhouettes of another girl and two men I don't recognize. "Has your vessel come through yet, Kyosuke?"

Kiryu rests the heels of his shoes on the aged wooden table. "Not yet. The mark is struggling to take root on her."

"Why?" The future at the head of the table asks. His face sports two separate marks, and I see a sigil of a spider on his right arm.

"I doubt it'll succeed," Misty pipes up from where she sits. "She has a strange aversion to darkness, and the mark she bears already holds a power I can't sense the ends of."

"You say she has an aversion, yet she suffers to survive here," the other man with a shaved head points out. "If she dies, we'll have wasted an asset."

Kiryu scoffs. "If she dies, the Signers will easily give themselves up. If there's one thing Silvan is good at, it's leaving marks on people without intending to. As long as we have her, they'll do whatever we want."

The man at the head of the table exhales. "You will get your revenge in due time, Kyosuke, using the girl if you so wish, but the way we end them must be the way the Immortals intended. In three days' time, the countdown to the gate's opening begins. The towers will rise, and we must be waiting there when the Signers arrive."

Kiryu sort of leans forward, like this part is worth listening to. The man with the spider mark turns to the guy with the shaved head next to him. "Demak, I trust you have a strong hold on the girl Signer's dragon."

The man, Demak, crosses his arms indifferently and nods. I see a mark in the shape of a monkey on his arm.

"You must wait for her at the western tower. Defeating her should be quite simple." He directs his attention to Kiryu. "Kyosuke, you stay yourself at the eastern tower and crush Yusei Fudo."

Kiryu cracks his knuckles. "It'll be my _pleasure_!"

"Carly—find Jack Atlas near the southern tower and make a fool of him."

The girl on the other side of the table stares at her mark and doesn't reply. The mark looks like some sort of bird.

"Misty, you will meet Aki Izayoi at the northern tower."

Misty pulls her hair over one shoulder. "I'll make that damned Black Rose pay."

"It's settled. Depending on whether or not your vessel takes the mark on, Kyosuke, we will accommodate."

"Speaking of which," Kiryu sighs, almost in disappointment, "she's been in the Envoy for quite some time. I should check to see if she's become one of us."

As he stands, Misty sort of scoffs. "Like I said, there's something odd about her. I don't think it'll work."

"Nonsense. She's human like the rest of us were—we can kill her and let the darkness take over her body like it did ours. It'll be quite the fun time!"

Kiryu walks off, and the man marked with the spider glances to Misty. "What exactly do you mean?"

"The girl's aura is... Bright."

He says it like a curse word. "_Bright_?"

The aura has settled down now that she's here, but it's almost as if she glows. Like she emits light—I don't understand how it's possible. It was almost painful to drag her here for Kyosuke."

"Odd."

"During my exchange with the Black Rose, she had an odd looking book—she read a few words from it and odd things started to happen. Almost like magic."

"If this is the case, perhaps it would be in our best interests to keep the girl here. Even if the mark doesn't flourish on her."

"Yes."

The vision abruptly stops as I feel my body rising. I gasp and cough as I come out of the bright sea, grabbing for anything I can use to brace myself. Kiryu tosses me back onto the platform like a fish out of water and turns my body over while I struggle for breath. "What? You're not dead? You must be tougher than I thought." I feel his boot on my shoulder, ready to shove me back in, when a female voice stops him.

"I told you it wouldn't work, Kiryu. Bring her here."

I hear him growl noncommittally.

I can move now; their mistake was unfreezing me. I suddenly have the energy to be hugely upset about Kiryu's transformation, so the earth starts to shake under us. My mark spits flames.

I bring myself onto my feet and push my way past Kiryu and Misty, who are still taken aback by the earthquake.

"Get back here!" Kiryu roars in the distance. I run forward into the darkness, my lungs burning, my legs aching, and my flickering mark the only thing cutting through the dark. I have to get out. I have to get back to the city.

I crash head first into what feels like a solid wall and fall to my back. I look twice, planning on seeing a hallway or something, but what I've fallen into isn't a wall. It's the man I saw earlier, the one with the spider mark.

Before I can get up and navigate around him, I feel a sharp pain on the back of my neck. I swat at it on instinct—a spider crawls into my hand and suddenly disintegrates. Not seconds later, a shocking pain shoots through my system. My mark flickers violet in the dark, then shoots off flares of green.

"Deal with _that_ pain for a while," he tells me indifferently.

It feels like there's a spider crawling around inside of me. My body shivers and struggles to shove the feeling away. In the back of my mind, I hear footsteps as Kiryu and Misty finally catch up. "We should put her away in the cell block," Misty suggests.

"Send the new girl down to meet me there," Kiryu suggests. "There must be a different way to turn her, and I think the newbie should get a bit of experience before she takes on a Signer."

The spider feeling saps my energy, and my vision begins to float as my mark flashes violet even more often.

_Leave me alone... _Please_ get out..._

The feeling of another presence inside of me is heavily daunting. Kiryu grabs the back of my jacket again and drags me somewhere else while my body flips and turns in an attempt to crush an invisible arachnid.

_Feeling... No more feeling..._

I don't know why I think it, but it seems like the greatest idea right now. To not be able to feel.

I curl my body into a tight ball, squeeze my eyes shut, and focus all of my energy on nothingness. Maybe if I focus on feeling nothing, I will feel nothing.

I don't hear Kiryu speaking to me as we go along, but the crawling inside of me gradually begins to fade. I clench my mind tighter, blocking out all of my senses.

My body slides somewhere, Kiryu's grip gone. For a long time, nothing moves inside or outside of me, and so I take it as a good sign to release at least a little.

And then I'm on fire. The air gets colder and drier; I struggle for breath and any possible way to keep myself hydrated. It feels like I'm being suffocated.

"Stop being so insistent, Silvan. Just _die_ already~!" Kiryu's voice bounces around in the prison of my mind, which tightens again to shut him out.

It hurts so bad, and I can't move because of the pain. It's a billion times worse than any vision, a billion times worse than all of my friends standing inches away from me with all of their marks glowing at the same time. It's worse than the pain I felt when Misty activated her dark mark. It's so bad, I can't even feel how terrible it is. I've lost all feeling in my body again, but moving at all somehow still hurts even more.

I can almost feel my form curled into its tight ball and Kiryu's cold hand attempting to pry my hands away from my shoulders.

"She's being so _difficult_," I hear him complain, to someone else whose identity I'm not sure of. "She's just a regular person, I don't get how she's resisting the transformation!"

"She just needs to be _persuaded_." The voice belongs to a girl, not Misty, and it sounds colder than I feel. Something comes in contact with my ribcage, forcing what little air I've sucked in right out of my lungs. I can barely feel it, and yet it still hurts. "Get up, psychic. We can't have you shutting us out now, can we?"

"Go to _hell_," I manage, my fingernails digging into my shoulders. I can feel them drawing blood to the surface, but it isn't a pain intense enough to get through the agony I'm rolling in.

"We're already _here_," the girl's icy voice hisses. "One way or another, you'll come around."

I squeeze myself into a tighter ball and close off my mind, ignoring the words and the exclamations in the background. It's hard to shut them out and I feel my arm pulsing with heat. It sends off waves of shifting air and the temperature gets hotter around my entire body, by comparison making me feel even colder than I already am.

Time continues to pass in intervals and long periods of cold silence—I don't know how long it's been, but it feels like forever when the temperature rises a few degrees. Just when I begin to adjust to it, the temperature rises until it feels like I'm literally on fire. It skips right past uncomfortable and goes straight to a white hot live wire.

Someone touches me, but I don't know who the hand belongs to. All I feel is that it isn't Kiryu. Their hand is warm and gentle.

I open my mouth with the intention to speak to this person, understand who they could be, but the only thing I can muster up is a strangled scream. The hand immediately draws away, an aura of fear surrounding them. They hesitate before they touch me again and I lock my jaw to keep myself from trying to make any noise whatsoever as the person lifts me up.

The heat rolls and rises, falls and swells continuously into one long and painful firestorm. My body is still cold somewhere inside, and I'm growing more tired than I was so long ago. I have to stay awake, though, I have to keep my barrier up and keep Kiryu's killing influence out as long as it exists.

I'm being taken somewhere by hands that I'm sure aren't hostile in any way. Their presence is actually almost familiar, a bubbling of easy thoughts that soothes me with memories of long ago.

It's not long until an engine moves under me, and I think that I'm on the back of a duel runner. It moves for a while until the engine suddenly cuts off and the person picks me up again, going quickly in a direction.

Voices call out in concern, even desperation. I feel a shower of sparks come off of my mark, which hurts enough to make me inhale suddenly. I hear a sole voice, speaking the closest to me, and the person carrying me passes my body to them. This presence is also familiar, but their thoughts are quiet and pitch black. I feel blind again. I still have no idea where I am.

They take me somewhere where the temperature around me changes again, this time to something comfortable that isn't too hot and isn't too cold. They put me down suddenly, the warmth of their body now gone, and fear rushes through my veins in cold flashes.

_No_, I want to say. _Don't leave. Don't go away. I'm not safe here._

Then they touch me, specifically the burning mark on my arm, hand rubbing along the skin like they're trying to douse the fire. I can feel the worry and despair between both of us, like the person is so desperately trying to help me and suffering because they can't. It's almost... Comforting. Can I trust whoever this is?

I open up a little, so that I can hear the air moving around me.

"Where am I?" I whisper. The hand moves my hair away from my face.

"You're in Martha's house. It's all right, you're safe—I promise."

I know that voice. I don't know why he's here, but I don't care about that—I grab his hand instinctively. "Don't leave, Yusei—_please_."

"I won't."

He keeps his word, just like he always has, and I find the incentive to let go. The pain I've been through has sapped my energy, and though I don't want to, I fall asleep.

* * *

I wake in the darkness, my body aching and my head pounding, and for a moment I'm worried that it was all a dream—that I'm still with Kiryu. But I feel my fingers loosely laced through someone else's. My eyes hurt, though they eventually adjust to the night. I see Yusei sitting in a chair next to the bed, his head lolling on his shoulder and his arm set across the mattress to keep in contact with mine.

When I asked him to stay, I didn't realize he'd take it so literally... He looks almost uncomfortable and I'm worried about it, but at the same time I don't want to wake him. I feel exhaustion in the air, and there's a throbbing in his muscles that I can feel seeping into the rest of his body down to his fingertips—it's a faint echo of the pain we split two days ago. I finally decide that I want him to sleep, but I also want him to sleep well.

"Yusei. Wake up Yusei."

He shifts in the chair a little and when he speaks, he sounds half-asleep. "What is it?"

"Move over here, you look uncomfortable."

"No, I'm fine," he says, a yawn tagging the end of his sentence.

"I might not be able to read your mind anymore, but I know when you're lying. Come on."

"Silvan—"

"_Move_!" I pull on him until he stumbles out of the chair and into the side of the mattress.

"Ow," he complains.

"It's a mattress, get over it," I say. He lays on his back next to me and his blue eyes drift in the dark.

I notice that his literal trip onto the space beside me pulled his shirt up on the side; there are bandages around his stomach. I'm dying to ask him what happened, but I know that neither of us have the energy for a late-night conversation.

He falls asleep again within the next few moments, and I tell myself to make him explain to me in the morning. Sleep doesn't come back for me as quickly as it came for Yusei, but it does eventually come and it brings vivid dreams with it.

I see Kiryu again, and he's standing beside Misty. She tosses her long dark hair behind one shoulder.

"I can't _believe_ she got away," Kiryu complains. "She could've been one of us, and dammit, I wanted to see Yusei's face when that had happened!"

"The mark couldn't take root on her," Misty replies. "The one she had already made a barrier around her, wouldn't let her be influenced. I told you it wouldn't work."

"Wouldn't let us kill her either, stupid fucking thing..."

"It's a powerful imprint—perhaps even more powerful than ours or those pitiful Signers."

"How the hell does she get such a strong mark? Not like she's anything special, just a little girl with a big mouth..."

"Whichever deity decided to imprint on her must disagree with you. Besides, you haven't seen what she's capable of."

"Oh _really_?" Kiryu challenges. "What can she do, then?"

"For one thing, she expels death. We've all seen that. I sense that her mind wanders, infiltrates the thoughts of others, and there was that earthquake she caused. There may even be more that she has under her belt," Misty answers, playing with a strand of her raven hair.

"So _lame_," he grumbles. "Figures the Signers would take advantage of her. What I'd give to see her tear his heart out and _stomp_ on it..."

"Don't let your grudge against Yusei Fudo get in the way of the big picture, Kyosuke. Silvan Levine is out of the question, so we must find someone else to bear the mark of the killer whale."

"Demak has that handled," Kiryu replies, waving a nonchalant hand.

"Does he have someone in mind?"

"He must. I had Silvan in mind for a long time before we brought her here."

"Who took her away, anyways?"

"I didn't see the face. If I had, I would've sacrificed them to Ccapac Apu..."

"Some good _that_ would've done."

Their conversations increase in frequency, until all I can hear is a high-pitched keening and the air around my left arm grows unbearably hot until I feel it spark and I promptly fall off of the other side of the bed.

I open my eyes then, realizing that the room is full of daylight. "Ow."

Yusei suddenly starts to laugh, then looks down over the side of the mattress while failing to keep a straight face. "Are you all right?"

"Don't laugh at me, you _jerk_. I'm fine," I say. "Nightmares, that's all."

His eyebrows narrow and the smile disappears. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Ordinarily, no, but this time I think that it's something you should hear. Not just the nightmares, either."

He reaches down, I take his hand, and he pulls me off of the floor. I sit on the edge of the bed to tell him what I've been through and what I've seen, and the disturbed aura in the room grows bigger. When I finish, Yusei doesn't say anything for a long time. I try to catch his eye, because it seems like he's purposely avoiding my gaze.

"Kiryu was trying to hurt you," he says finally, "to hurt us. Is that what you're saying?"

"I think so. I don't remember a lot of what happened. Just a lot of fire and ice and some things in between." I lean forward a little. "How did I get here, anyways?"

"Crow said he found you in the middle of the B.A.D., so he brought you here."

"Out in the open? That's weird. I would've thought we were underground."

"Nevertheless, he brought you back here, Martha told me to let you recuperate, and you asked me not to leave—so I didn't."

"You didn't have to stay."

"Yes I did."

I fall silent. My eyes shift down to his stomach, remembering how it was patched up last night. "...I felt that you were in pain. A couple nights ago, I knew you were in danger and I could feel what you were feeling. I want to know what happened to you. What I was sensing."

He sighs. After all that's happened, I guess nothing really surprises him anymore. "I met with Goodwin, and he explained about the Dark Signers and dropped me back here to investigate the old Ener-D Reactor. Apparently, its explosion created a dark energy that woke up the Dark Signers, and that's what they use as a life source. After that, I met up with Crow and the rest of the guys."

"Glad they're free," I say hopefully.

"They'll be happy to see you. Anyways, we had a run in or two with Security, and afterwards I gave the guys the run-down of the Crimson Dragon and our marks. When it got later, Crow and I went down to the B.A.D. to check out Ener-D, and we ran into Kiryu."

"He spilled the story of his side transfer to me," I tell him. "I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault. He initiated one of those Shadow Duels where the damage is real, and I definitely took some real damage..."

I don't want to ask the details. I think it would pain us both. "I wish I could've been there..."

"You were pretty busy yourself. Speaking of which, how are you feeling?"

"Kind of like I was run over a few times by a fully loaded truck. Nothing particularly new," I retort.

"If you aren't feeling like yourself—"

"I'll be fine," I say. He opens his mouth to object, so I change the subject. "I freed my brother."

"That's wonderful."

I feel around for the device in the pocket of my jacket and pull it out. "Divine had planted it on the doctor who performed the procedure, then messed with his mind so that he was too crazy to tell anyone about it. One of my friends from Arcadia helped me to tinker with it and safely deactivate what was keeping him there."

"I'm happy for you, Silvan," he says.

A knock comes on the door. Martha peers around the threshold. "You two are finally awake?"

"Martha," I sigh, feeling relieved. "I'm so glad to see you."

"When you told me you'd be back soon, Silvan, I didn't realize you meant this soon," she laughs. "It's barely been a week."

"I know. Things have been... Crazy."

"I'll say. Yusei's finally payed me a visit, so I figure hell must've frozen over."

The ends of Yusei's mouth pull up in a would-be smile.

"Now that the two of you are conscious, come into the kitchen. I'm making breakfast."

She exits the door and Yusei stands, offering me his hand. I can stand on my own, but I take it anyway because we're home, he's trying to be polite, and it just feels right. When we walk into the kitchen, Martha is making something on the stove and a dark-haired man few years older than us sits at the kitchen table

"Hey Yusei," he says when we walk in. "Feeling better?"

"Much, thanks. Silvan, this is Saiga—he's Himuro's friend that helped me move into Neo Domino. Saiga, this is my friend Silvan—"

"I know, I recognize her from the photo you gave me. Kind of wondered why she wasn't in the crate with the rest of your buddies."

"Maybe I should've warned you about that."

"Would've been good to know," Saiga tells him. "Good to meet you, Silvan."

"You too," I return. "Thanks for freeing my friends."

"Yeah, no problem."

Martha comes away from the stove. "Are you three thirsty?"

"_Immensely_," I say. I hadn't realized it before, but now that I'm paying attention I realize that my throat is bone dry.

Yusei gets three bottles of water for us, and I down mine almost instantly. "It was really dry there," I explain when they stare at me like I've lost my mind. "Not even any water in the air."

"Harsh."

"It's over and done with," I answer. "It's also a new day."

"Good point," Yusei chimes.

Martha brings us eggs while I tell her my story, every crazy incident and painful experience I've had from the beginning of this week to this very moment. Periodically, I stop to chew, swallow, or listen to a comment having to do with the situation from Saiga or Yusei.

"You've almost been through more than Yusei," Martha exclaims. "I swear, the two of you get more and more danger-prone by the second."

"My love affair with danger is sort of involuntary," I reply. "Not so sure about Yusei's."

He shoots me a flat glare, and Saiga and I laugh.

"So, this book of yours," Saiga pipes up. "Mind if I take a look?"

"Sure," I say nonchalantly. "It's right—" I feel around to my back pocket, where I've kept the spell book since I first came across it. "...it isn't here."

Panic rises up in my chest, and I think Yusei notices before I do; he puts his hand on my shoulder. "Relax. Maybe you dropped it in Arcadia or it fell out when Crow was bringing you back. It could be in the bedroom, for all we know." I know he's just trying to make me feel better. It isn't working.

"I lost it," I wail. "I lost the only possible key to my mark... This is just fantastic!"

"We'll find it somehow," he tries.

"I appreciate the moral support, Yusei, but it's useless. Kiryu probably took it from me," I groan. "There's no way in hell I'm going back to that place."

"Do you at least remember some of the spells?"

"Only the shorter ones," I grumble. "Like the ones for opening doors, or for Draíocht or turning things invisible."

"That's good," Yusei says hopefully. "It's better than nothing."

"I guess it's the best I can do," I mumble. "I'll have to hope that Evan brought some other books from Arcadia that I can leaf through..." My head snaps up, remembering. "_Oh_! Aki! Oh my God, I hope she's all right..."

"What? What about Aki?"

"Before I woke up with Kiryu, I shoved her out of the way of a falling piece of ceiling. We had sort of an argument before that because I told her I was leaving and I wanted her to join me, but we may have made up before the shit went down. I don't know what happened to her... I don't know what happened to any of them and _oh holy God_ I left my duel runner there what if it got crushed—"

"Silvan," Yusei interrupts. "_Breathe_. I'm sure your duel runner is fine."

"_Sorry._ I'm worried about a lot of things right now. How are we supposed to get back to Neo Domino?"

"I haven't thought of it yet."

"We should think of something soon. The Dark Signers were talking about something being three days away. Something bad."

"That was yesterday. Maybe we have less time than we think."

As conversation falls silent and we both begin to think to ourselves, the windows begin to shake. I flinch. Yusei touches my shoulder. "It's ok. It's not an earthquake."

"The trees," I say, catching sight of their leaves whipping into the air. I've never seen a helicopter land, much less on someone's front yard, but I suppose there's a first time for everything. "What the hell?"

"I don't know," Yusei says.

"What the devil is going on out there?" Martha puts down what she was doing before and crosses to he front room to open the door.

"Why is a helicopter on the lawn?" Saiga asks flatly.

"Beats me," I say. "Maybe it's Goodwin, come to save the day."

"Doubtful," Yusei replies. "I'm pretty sure it was a one-way deal."

"He wouldn't leave you here—the rest of the Signers are in the city."

"Maybe he trusted I'd get out myself."

I shake my head questioningly and Martha suddenly comes into the room, looking almost unsure of herself. "Yusei, you have guests."

He looks around me. "Who?"

A man and a woman walk around Martha, both wearing the same solemn look. I don't know them, but I know their faces. They have Aki's eyes and I see most of Aki's features in her mother's face.

"Senator Izayoi," I say flatly, without even thinking about it.

He stares at me for a moment, trying to register my face. "I... Don't believe I know you."

"Well, I know you. Your daughter's a good friend of mine and I've heard a great deal about you." My voice comes out harsh and cold. "I'd love to know why you treated her the way you did."

I get no reaction from them—just a sort of sorrowful stare. They both wear looks of deep shame.

I see Aki's face in their memories, set in repose and surrounded by wires. She's hurt—it makes me feel even worse about what's happened, because I promised I'd help her when I can barely even help myself.

"What can I do for you, Senator Izayoi?" Yusei asks monotonously. He's gone into a state of indifference, something he usually does when he doesn't know what to feel.

"Please, call me Hideo. This is my wife, Setsuko. We need your help, Mr. Fudo, if you wouldn't mind providing it."

"Why don't you sit down?" Martha offers. "Discuss things. I'll make some tea."

Hideo and Setsuko cross to the table. Yusei gives me a look with a raised eyebrow. I know what he's asking. Can we trust them?

All they want is help, I think. Aki is definitely hurt. I've said it before, because I know it's true: if there's anyone that can really help Aki, it's Yusei. I give him a short nod.

He nods back and goes to sit at the table, parallel to Hideo. Saiga stands at one side of Yusei, while I stand at the other.

"You see," Hideo begins, staring down at the surface of the table, "my daughter, Aki, was recently hurt in the incident at the Arcadia Movement. She's been unconscious since then, and the doctors aren't sure if she'll ever wake up."

Aki's mother bursts into tears. Martha puts a teacup in her hands.

"They've tried everything... And we're her parents, for crying out loud! I don't know why we can't do anything..."

That's a lie. I see it, projected shamefully into his memory. "Senator Izayoi," I say lightly, "please think of me as a lie detector. I've already put you on thin ice for treating one of my best friends poorly, so I advise you to put a little more truth into your tearful confession from here on out."

Hideo stares at me. "Believe me, miss..."

"Silvan."

"Believe me, Silvan, if there was something we could do, we'd do it. To be honest... I blame myself for the state my daughter's been in."

Yusei sits quietly, waiting for him to continue.

"With my job as a senator, it was always hard to spend time with my daughter. My days were always taken up, but I always tried my best to spend what time I did have at home with her."

I can imagine that from the story Aki told me in the garden at Arcadia. A little girl in a big, empty house with no one to talk to and nothing to do.

"She loved to duel. Whenever I had the chance, I would duel with her, but there was one time when it went horribly amiss."

The day I saw in my vision... Where Aki's mark appeared and her father called her a monster.

"I received a call that I had to leave in the middle of one of our duels... Aki was upset by it and turned over one of her cards, but the damage it dealt was real. Then this mark appeared on her arm. I was frightened—can you believe that—frightened by my own child. In the heat of everything, I called her a monster..."

"And she believed you," I say quietly.

"She believed me. I wish I could take that moment back—I would do anything to go and stop myself from letting that word form in my mouth."

He seems honestly sorry. I let it slide without a comment.

"Since she developed those abilities... I never knew how to deal with her." His face falls into something wracked with despair. "I did the worst thing possible—I sent her away. I sent her to the Duel Academy, thinking that they could teach her to control her powers, but they just isolated her... Then one night, she came home and saw me and my wife having dinner together. I'm not sure if she thought we were happy without her, or what, but she caused the windows to burst in a fit of rage and disappeared."

I watch the memories drift past me. He's truly sorry, but that isn't enough to fix Aki's hatred for what he did. There really is no excuse for how he treated her.

"Aki's heart has been closed to us... There's no way we could reach her."

"And you think _I_ can?" Yusei asks almost incredulously. "I'm sorry, Senator Izayoi, but I'm not sure if—"

"You must help!" Hideo exclaims. He grabs Yusei's wrist over the table. "Please—you're the only one who can help her! Jack Atlas said that you helped her during the Fortune Cup, and you're the only one who can help her now!"

_Goddammit, Jack. Know what is and isn't your business. _

Yusei remains quiet. I can almost see him pondering what action to take.

"Yusei," I say quietly, "you may think that you can't help Aki, but the only way I was able to get her trust was through what you told her. If there's anyone on this planet with the power to cut through Aki's troubles, or anyone's for that matter, I know it's you. Don't sell yourself short."

He only seems half-convinced. Martha seems to swoop out of nowhere—she grabs him by the ear. "Yusei Fudo, you're speaking with one of your lifelong friends, and I suggest you take her advice. I'm still convinced that you're terrified of your friend Kiryu. What's the point of having friends at all if you can't face them?"

"Having a grudge against Kiryu won't get me anywhere good," he objects.

"Neither will closing your heart, like this Aki girl's seems to be," Martha counters. "The only people who can open it back up again are your friends—now, doesn't that sound familiar?"

Yusei glances at me. "A-All right. I'll help."

"God, you're great, Martha," I laugh.

Hideo lets out a sigh of relief. "You don't know how thankful I am!"

Yusei gets up, sighing. "When do we leave?"

Hideo comes around the table and heads for the front door. "As soon as possible!"

Yusei looks at me. "Am I going to regret this?"

I attempt to laugh away his discomfort. "You'll be fine. I promise. Remember that I'm psychic, too. If anything goes wrong, I have your back."

He seems almost nervous as he nods to show he agrees. I wonder why that is—it isn't like Yusei to be nervous about anything.

Martha comes over to us and puts her hands on her hips. "I expect both of you will be a bit more safe while you're gone."

"No promises!" I exclaim. "Remember that danger sneaks up on us."

"We'll watch each other's backs," Yusei assures her.

"Good," Martha says. Then she shoves an apple into my hand. "Go do what you have to."

"Can't argue with that," I say. I take a bite from the apple and follow Yusei out the door, where Hideo and Setsuko have loaded onto the helicopter. "Are you leaving your duel runner?" I ask.

Yuseu glances at it, leaned up against a tree behind the house. "We'll be back."

"All right."

We jump up onto the platform of the helicopter, and I feel the metal vibrating around me as the blades begin to circulate and we lift off the ground.

"Uh. _Whoa_," I mutter as the helicopter begins to move over the slums and the sound.

Yusei chuckles and puts his hand on my shoulder. "Do you have issues with heights?"

I grab onto his torso with both arms. "Not so much heights—more like _falling_."

"You're not going to fall," he assures me.

The helicopter is suddenly gliding over the tops of buildings in Neo Domino. I recognize that we're headed towards the hospital, but we pass a huge plot of flattened, destroyed land with a sole building in the center.

"Arcadia," I whisper. In the ground around it are overlapping glyphs, one of Misty's lizard and the other of the bird I saw on the other female Dark Signer's forearm. I pray that everyone I saw out was able to escape in one piece.

The helicopter lands on the roof of the hospital—Yusei and I jump out, followed by Hideo and Setsuko. They lead us downstairs to where I suspect Aki is being kept. I fiddle with the apple as we go, my appetite gone.

Hideo pushes open a door on the ninth floor of the building, coming into what looks like a viewing room for surgeries. Outside of the glass window, I see Aki as I saw her in Hideo's mind with a multitude of wires and equipment gathered around her.

"Silvan!" A chorus of voices sounds.

"Evan!" I exclaim. "Jeiricho, Darragh? What are you doing here?"

Evan intercepts me in a hug. "We came here after the buildings started coming down—we've been worried sick about you."

I turn and smirk at Darragh. "Were you _worried_ about me?"

"Like _hell_," he scoffs.

Yusei peeks around me. "Am I allowed to meet your new friends?"

"Sure," I say cheerfully. "Evan, Darragh, Jeiricho, this is Yusei Fudo—we grew up together. Yusei, this is Jeiricho, Darragh, and Evan. Jeiricho and Darragh are friends from Arcadia, and you of course remember Evan."

Yusei and Evan eye each other for a moment before Evan speaks up. "Good to, uh... See you again. Sorry about skipping out."

"No problem. I understand why you needed to. Glad you're back."

I really hope things get less awkward later.

I spot Jack, Rua, and Ruka on the other end of the room. The twins come rushing towards us. "Yusei! Silvan! You're both all right!"

"Yeah, we're fine," I say, confused. Jack remains on the other end of the room; he meets Yusei's eye and the two of them sort of exchange a plain stare before Yusei goes through the door to check on Aki.

"She hasn't moved at all," Evan mumbles in my ear. "It's been about a day since the Arcadia quakes. Where did you go, Silvan?"

"It's a story," I grumble. "Not one for now, though. What did you do when you got out?"

"We all looked for a way out of the fires; Ruka was able to get us out, but everything started burning down so Darragh went back to grab your duel runner before we left."

Darragh, who's obviously eavesdropping, leans over to look at me. "You're _welcome_, Blondie."

I'm damn thankful, but there's no way I'm letting him know that. I stick my tongue out in his direction.

"Speaking of things that are yours, Silvan," Evan continues, "they recovered this from the Arcadia wreck."

"My spell book!" I take it from him; a huge weight flies off of my shoulders. "Evan, I _love_ you!"

He shrugs. "Yeah, I know."

"Guys," Jeiricho says suddenly. "Aki's waking up!"

"What?" I exclaim, gravitating to the window. I see Aki moving her head from side to side, looking around the room, and Yusei standing a distance away from her hospital bed. She pulls herself up, sees her parents, and a look of horror carves onto her face. She pushes Yusei back and I prepare to provide some form of assistance when my mark begins to glow.

_A vision? Now? _

I feel myself tripping back on something and landing as the picture in front of my eyes changes.

I'm back in the laboratory, staring at my father. Yusei's father Hakase passes him back a newborn version of me. "Get the children away from here. We have a problem."

My father gives a nod and rushes out of the room. The person who comes back into the room is oddly familiar—he's tall and built strong with a tuft of pale hair on his head. It's the Dark Signer with the spider mark, pre-Dark Signer.

"Dr. Fudo, what's going on?"

"The system is shorting out," Hakase answers. "Eri, get Yusei out of here."

Yusei's mother rushes out of the room with him. Hakase looks at the man. "Rudger, I need you to get everyone out of here. _Immediately_."

Rudger sort of stares at him. "A-All right." He takes off running, and my vision follows him down the halls as a red light flashes and people run past him. He slows down suddenly, and goes into a room with a huge containment unit of the same lights I saw in the sea Kiryu put me in. Cracks are forming along the surface of the tank.

He puts his hand on it. "Here's to a new order, Uru."

Then the container bursts, enveloping everything possible in a great white light.

It's my impression that Dark Signers become the way they are through death and revenge—if Ener-D was Rudger's death, what was his revenge?

I continue to pave a path through the vision, until I find my way to a building. There's a man sitting on top of it, flipping through a book. I recognize him as well—it's the Dark Signer with the shaved head, Demak, I think. He puts the book down beside him and stands. I see that the pages are filled with information about duel monsters and legends about their spirit world.

He spreads his arms out and shouts, "Let death bring me to you, Ancient Fairy Dragon!" Then he jumps, and I hear a chorus of screams from down below, where he lands. A strange wind blows the pages of the book to a different place, where there's a carving of the monkey mark I once saw on his arm. Below it, I see an inscription that reads 'Cusillu.'

It's horrible, the way he's died, but I keep going.

A hospital bed is being rolled quickly along a hall. An anesthesiologist is holding a mask to a girl's face, one that I soon realize is Misty Lola's. She looks weak, tired, and sorrowful.

"Toby," she croaks. "My... Brother..."

"We're losing her!" Someone shouts.

In her closing eyes, I see a reflection of a lizard forming.

"I will... Avenge Toby," she whispers. "I will... _End_ the Black Rose... _Ccarayhua_."

Her eyes fall shut and a heart monitor somewhere flatlines, but I know that she obviously won't be dead for long.

I wonder who Toby is as I pave my path forward.

Now I'm in a dark cell—I see Kiryu rested against one wall. He looks like death has already come for him, making him ragged and tired and skinny with malnutrition.

I can't believe that my friend has come to this—he was always so strong, and they've reduced him to nothing.

He looks up at the ceiling. "A giant?"

So that's what his mark is—the mark of the giant. I feel almost like something is speaking to him, something I can't hear. His face twists cruelly. "I _will_ have my revenge..."

A purple fog comes through the walls as Kiryu closes his eyes, presumably welcoming his death so that he can become something else.

I don't want to watch it anymore. Seeing someone who used to be so close to me become something destructive and harsh is more difficult than I thought.

I push forward, into the place I least expect to be: Divine's office.

A girl is up against the window, the one I've shattered multiple times; it's cracking under her. I recognize her, and I know where I've seen her now. I saw her in the vision I had of Yusei in the parking garage, and I almost crashed into her while coming out of the hospital.

"You've lost," Divine tells her cruelly. "This is why you don't try to take the secrets of Arcadia. You don't try to fool me."

The glass shatters and the girl's body goes flying out of the window. I know who Darragh and I saw falling.

She comes in hard contact with the ground, leaving a crevice in the earth. Suddenly, her body starts to glow.

"I-I wish I could've flown," the girl laments, barely speaking at all. "Like a little hummingbird... I could've flown my way back to Jack..."

The purple light explodes, and a tremor rocks through the earth. It's the one I stopped.

When the light fades, the girl is dressed in Dark Signer regalia. I finally realize that the mark on her arm is a hummingbird. She raises a card in one of her hands—it pictures a great orange bird, marked 'Aslla Piscu.'

"I... Will make you _suffer_, Divine!"

Her voice becomes a horrifying triple bass, and I'm suddenly standing back in Divine's office. Aslla Piscu pokes its beak into the broken window, taking out the ground under Divine's feet. With a horrifying yell, he falls through and plummets all the way down to the ground floor. I hear Aki's scream in the background.

Her voice jolts me awake and out of my vision, but I'm not looking at her when my eyes refocus. Evan, Jeiricho, Jack, Darragh, Rua, Ruka, and Yusei are all gathered around me, looking almost concerned.

"Uh," I say. "'Sup?"

Evan lets out a sigh of relief. The rest of the room seems to follow him.

"What?" I ask. "This happens periodically, didn't you know that?"

"Never this long before," Yusei remarks. I notice that he has several long slash marks in his face.

"_Holy..._ What happened to _you?_" I exclaim.

He pulls me up off of the ground. "You were out longer than you think."

I glance out the window, where Aki is trapped in a hug with her mother and father. She smiles at them, and I can tell she really means it.

"You got them to make up," I muse. "Told you it was possible."

"Yeah, but I think I need a doctor." He wipes a line of blood away from one of the scratches along his cheek.

"Or you could settle for me," I reply. I take my spell book out from where I hope it will stay and flip aimlessly through. "_Na wounds cneasaigh._"

My mark flashes and a green light goes over the slashes on Yusei's face, sealing them over and reverting him back to the uninjured state he was before.

"Nifty trick."

"See why it'd be a pain if I'd really lost it?"

Aki comes in the door. "Silvan!"

I navigate around Yusei and accept a hug from her. Her hairpin seems to have fallen out, but the energy around her isn't unbearable. It's just barely there. Has she learned to control it?

"I'm so sorry," she says quickly, but I stop her.

"Hey, it's all right. Nothing was your fault, and we're all safe. Isn't that what really matters?"

"I mean about arguing with you... I guess I was just afraid."

"That's all right," I laugh. "We wouldn't be people if we weren't afraid sometimes. Besides, we're all out, you've made bygones with your parents, and look—we have four Signers in the same room together."

Rua jumps up. "You're forgetting me!"

Ruka shushes him. "How many times do I have to tell you—you're _not_ a Signer."

"You don't know that!"

A weary laugh echoes through the room, shared by almost all of us. Then there's a knock on the outside door. It cracks open, and I see Goodwin's assistant Mikage poke her head inside. "Excuse me, but Director Goodwin would like to see you." Her eyes flash to me. "_All_ of you."

Aki looks at me, too. "Why?"

I sigh. "Because this is where the _real_ battle begins."

* * *

**So it has been two days. Huh. **

**As you know, this is where the real story begins. A few chapters from here, a lot of questions will be answered. **

**Yeah, I know Demak/Devack doesn't have a formal transformation story, but I feel like since it's written in his character design that "he has a connection to the spirit world," maybe he, like, worshipped duel monsters and thought that he could go to their world if he killed himself. People are crazy, man. **

**Anyways, thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	13. Argumentation

**Hey again, everybody! Enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

I shift nervously in the back of the squad car. Yusei squeezes my hand reassuringly. I can't really be reassured with Trudge glaring mercilessly at me from his rearview mirror.

"Would you please _stop_ that?" I ask.

Trudge looks daggers at me. "Stop what?"

"That! You keep glaring at me and it's making me really uncomfortable! I'm already in the back of a cop car, this is where criminals go!"

"I'd prefer the term 'convicted visionary,'" Yusei retorts sourly.

I have to smile at that. Trudge scoffs. "If it makes you so uncomfortable, why are you looking?"

"You're asking a psychic not to stare back at someone else when they can sense that person staring at them," I retort.

Trudge makes a noncommittal noise and directs his attention to the road. Yusei chuckles a little, and Trudge fixes his mirror so that he can stare at Yusei instead. "I'll have none of that, Fudo!"

He rolls his eyes. "Why did we have to ride in _your_ car again?"

"Because it's my job to keep an eye on you Satellite troublemakers."

"_Troublemakers_," I laugh. "That's sort of an understatement."

Trudge is scowling as he pulls into the driveway of Goodwin's estate. The gate slides open for us, and the car comes up onto the dirt pathway, followed by the two other squad cars holding the rest of our friends and Jack's duel runner taking up the rear.

Trudge gets out and pulls the doors uncaringly open for us. I laugh as I exit the car. Mikage comes out from the front seat of the car behind us and says, "Come this way."

Jack pulls his duel runner into the courtyard, next to mine—Mikage had it taken here, which puts her on my better side for now. Ruka, Rua, and Aki come out of the second car, while Evan, Jeiricho, and Darragh join us from the rear.

"What do you think Goodwin wants?" I whisper to Yusei.

"He's wanted a lot of stuff. I couldn't tell you what it is this time."

"Should I show him my mark?" I ask.

"There's no use in keeping it hidden anymore."

We all pile into the house, and Mikage takes us upstairs into what appears to be an office. Then she retrieves a holographic chart from the desk. "Thank you for coming here, everyone. We're here to discuss the recent happenings, mostly the glyphs that surrounded the Arcadia Movement."

"I dueled Misty Lola," Aki says sheepishly. "And she summoned something called an Earthbound God, or Immortal or something."

"Right. This has been recorded." Mikage types some things into her chart. "For a long time, the Security Maintenance Bureau has been trying to investigate Arcadia, but have never been allowed because of the information the Movement was in control of. A lot of insight was recovered from the wreck inside." She brings up a video feed and flips it to show it to us. I feel Evan tense up beside me as a child on the screen lights up with electricity. Aki presses her hand over her mouth. "This contains files on a multitude of children who were abducted and subjected to live testing. Mr. Levine, I believe there's something associated with you somewhere within here."

"I'd rather not think about that," Evan tells her firmly. I reach behind me and squeeze his hand.

Aki stares confusedly at Evan. He doesn't look back, and Mikage brings up something else. "The video is enough proof of this—the children tested were picked due to their heightened abilities. Arcadia's creator, Divine, planned on refining these children in a way that would allow them to use their abilities outside of duels so that he could use them as a sort of army in war-torn areas of the world." She flips the chart over. "Aki, Silvan... You're both on this list."

I'm not surprised, but Aki lets out a terrified sob and runs out of the room. I see Yusei move to go after her, but I hold my hand out to stop him and I go instead. He raises an eyebrow at me but complies; I see the curiosity in his dreaming blue eyes.

Outside, Aki is crying, and I don't think she was crying like this when Divine was actually declared dead.

"Come here," I sigh, holding my arms out. I'm not going to tell her that everything will be okay—that's the worst possible thing to say to someone when they're crying.

Aki continues to cry into my shoulder, attempting to stop so she can say something but eventually just continuing to sob. I pat her back rhythmically, waiting for her to get a handle on herself.

"I... I feel so _used_!" She exclaims finally. "Divine... He was so kind to me! I felt like he was the only person who cared about me, but it was all just a lie!"

I sit her down at a table in the hall and stroke her pixie hair. "Aki... The truth was going to have to come out eventually."

"You knew about this?!" She exclaims. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Aki," I say gently, "you wouldn't have believed me."

She quiets down, remembering our conversations. "You... You tried to tell me before the duel, didn't you? That's why you wanted to escape."

I exhale. "When I was ten, Aki, my brother disappeared. I didn't know why or how, but he was gone and everyone told me that he was dead. When I came to Neo Domino and Arcadia, I wanted to leave immediately because there was something that didn't feel right about Divine. I didn't trust him, or the way he operated. The one excuse I used to try and leave was looking for my brother, but Divine pulled him out of thin air. I was at Arcadia for a total of five days, Aki, and in those five days I learned a lot about myself, but I also learned a lot about Divine."

Aki listens earnestly, wiping away the wetness on her face. I can sense Yusei and a few others eavesdropping from the other room.

"I learned that, when I was ten, Divine came to my foster mother's house and tried to 'adopt' me. When he was declined, he made plans to kidnap me, and my brother went with him so I wouldn't have to go. I learned that Divine broke my brother's leg and put a sensor in it that would electrocute him if he left Arcadia's grounds, so that when the time came and I arrived looking for him, I wouldn't have the heart to leave. I learned that Divine did a lot of sneaky, terrible, underhanded things and hurt a lot of people trying to get what he wanted. I learned that he had a secret room full of ancient books and scrolls, where I got my spell book from, and I learned that in that secret room he had overfilled files on you and me and Yusei and Ruka and everyone else standing in that room right now. Divine was a rotten, rotten guy with his own twisted up agenda, but he's gone now. You can let his influence take over you and make you sad that you fell for his tricks, or you can move forward and know that what he put you through has made you into a stronger person and led you to us—your real family, your real friends, and people who will actually understand who you are and what you've been through."

Aki starts to cry again, but it's not from sorrow. "Thank you, Silvan."

"I promised I wasn't going to leave you behind, didn't I?" I ask. "Neither are they. Screw Divine and his messed up battle plans—like I told you before, we're still here and we're still fighting for what really matters. So, how about it?"

She lets out a smile. "I'm glad you're my friend, Silvan."

"I'm glad you're my friend, too."

That's when Yusei joins me from where he's been standing. "Couldn't have put it better myself."

Aki stands, her face reddening. "I'm sorry for all the times I've caused you pain, Yusei."

"It's all right," he says. "I bruise easily, but I heal just as quick." He holds out his hand. "Friends?"

She takes it and nods earnestly. "Friends."

Mikage pokes her head out of the office, just as I see Goodwin coming down one hall. "So you've all arrived." He eyes my brother, Jeiricho, and Darragh. "I don't remember advising you to invite non-Signers, Mikage."

"You invited _me,_" I scoff. "I'm _not_ a Signer."

"Then what _are_ you, Silvan?" He cocks his head to the side, challenging. "I recall you telling me you had no mark."

I'm burning with apathy, though the feeling is dangerously close to becoming hatred. I think that I don't owe Rex Goodwin shit. My mark comes alive and a bone-chilling creaking comes from the big window next to me.

"Silvan," Evan warns. I feel him searching through me, looking for where my emotions come from. I won't let him change what I feel. I imagine that my mind is a labyrinth, and he's trapped in the middle of it.

A big crack runs down the window, spreading like small veins and capillaries through the glass.

"Silvan," Evan says again, sounding puzzled.

Then a popping sound, and the window explodes into shards of glass that ricochet off of an invisible barrier stretched over anyone who could be cut by it.

I let my mind recede from its labyrinthine state, and a feeling of peace hits me so hard that I feel like I'm going to fall over.

"You blocked me," Evan says, shocked. "How?"

"I sort of just... Did it," I answer.

"Was that quite necessary?" Goodwin asks.

"Yes," I say indifferently. "My friends will stay, or I'll break the other window."

He scoffs. "Very well. I only request to speak with the five of you in private."

Rua raises his hand in the air. "Me too?"

Goodwin catches my eye, exhales, and gestures for us to follow him. Jack and the twins break off from the rest of the group and follow me, Yusei, and Aki where Goodwin is going.

I walk between Aki and Yusei. She leans to us and whispers, "Why are we here again? I seem to recall Director Goodwin kidnapping your friends, Yusei."

"I don't trust Goodwin," Yusei whispers back, "but he does have the answers to everything that's been going on. I don't think we have much of a choice."

"Excuse me, Mr. Goodwin," Rua pipes up, "but where are we going? What do you want from us?"

"You're no Signer, boy. The answers I plan to give don't concern you."

"That was rude," I say under my breath.

Goodwin takes us down a corridor that goes down a lot of stairs. They lead into pitch darkness, and I feel uncomfortable because it reminds me of being with Kiryu.

"The King has been down here before," Goodwin comments from somewhere in the dark.

"That'd be _former_ King, to you," Jack remarks indifferently from somewhere behind me.

Suddenly the stairs flatten out, and we enter a dark room. My hands shake from being nervous, when suddenly the lights flicker on. They're muted orange and red, but they're warm and fill the room. My shakiness fades away and I keep my hands steady.

The scenery in front of us looks like a huge temple, stepping up to a glowing light suspended in a starry sky. Goodwin leads us on, through an archway marked with what looks like a dragon. I recognize parts of it—the wings, the claw, the tail... I've seen them all on my friends' arms.

As I'm busy staring at the glyph, my mark lights up. Goodwin stops and turns to me. "Is there a problem, Silvan?"

"I'm not sure," I say. "I didn't do anything." Suddenly the green clouds over and my mark starts to glow red. Bright red sigils crawl up my arms and legs, centering on my stomach and twisting onto my back. There's no burn, but the light is blinding. "W-What's happening?"

"I couldn't tell you," Goodwin muses. "Maybe you aren't a Signer, but perhaps you serve a similar purpose."

"What does that mean?" I exclaim. "Why am I... What is _happening_ to me?"

"What's _that?_" Ruka asks meekly, pointing to my back. I glance over my shoulder, where a red circular sigil of what I think is a dragon stands out across my shoulder blades. Around me, everyone else's marks light up.

"I'd _love_ to know that, too," I say between my teeth. "It's starting to _sizzle_."

"That would be the sign of the Crimson Dragon. When the Signers are gathered together or the power of the Crimson Dragon is channeled into one or many people, this glyph appears."

"That doesn't explain why it's on Silvan," Jack retorts. I force myself not to glare at him.

"No, it doesn't," Goodwin answers. "I'm afraid there's no explanation to it. She'll have to figure it out on her own."

"_Great_," I moan. "_Thanks_. More mysteries."

"Remind yourself that your fate is controlled by someone of a higher power than me."

I frown, clutch my arm where my mark glows bright red, and try not to pay attention to the lines and patterns of glowing symbols covering most of my body. It's harder than I initially thought.

Goodwin stops in the center of the room, right before the altar. "Let's begin with the two of you—Yusei, Jack. You've both been guided to Neo Domino by the Crimson Dragon, in hopes that you would find the correct path to your destinies."

"Hold up," Yusei says.

"That's definitely not what happened," Jack adds.

Yusei seems to agree. "You're the one who set us up here."

"We were settling our scores—the Crimson Dragon hasn't anything to do with it."

Goodwin looks on the altar. "That in itself was the outcome of the Dragon's control of fate. I did nothing but act as its hand to set the stage on what it desired."

Yusei scoffs. "Do you honestly expect us to _believe_ this?"

"You can't tell me that, as I'm obviously a part of this, the Crimson Dragon intended for my brother to disappear and intended for me to get attacked and run away here," I chime. "Why would a deity you're trying to spin as a good guy want its vessels to suffer?"

"It is all your decisions whether or not you believe me," Goodwin answers. "The fact remains that, as long as you bear your marks, your fate is set in stone."

Aki's face twists. "Is my power and all the things I've used it for—the pain I've caused—the will of the Crimson Dragon, as well?"

"May I remind you, Miss Izayoi, if your powers didn't exist, you may very well not be standing here with us. The Crimson Dragon chooses who to bestow its mark on, and you have been chosen. You cannot deny that you all share the same birthmark and you all have been chosen as the reincarnations of the legendary Signers. Whether you like it or not, thousands of years ago it was promised that you would all encounter each other as you have now, at the mercy of destiny."

Somewhere in the distance, I hear a great roar. The sigils suddenly vanish from my body, turning my mark green again before it suddenly goes out. My friends' marks go out as well.

"Director Goodwin," Ruka asks sheepishly, "there should be five Signers. If Silvan isn't the fifth Signer, who is?"

"The final Signer has already been awakened. Long ago, to be precise." A strange suspicion floats through our group. "The fifth Signer is likely to appear with the Crimson Dragon when the other four are in danger.

"And just what does that mean?" Yusei crosses his arms indifferently.

"When the time comes, you will know."

I don't like Goodwin being so cryptic. I didn't trust him before, when he and his clown buddy Yeager tried to interrogate me about my mark. This entire situation just makes me trust him less.

Suddenly, the room changes to what looks like a blue sky, specked with clouds all around us, until I look down and see that we're staring at familiar glyphs etched into the earth.

"The Nazca Lines?" I ask.

"Indeed. Thousands of years ago, the Crimson Dragon sealed a group of dark incarnates within the earth. They became known to us as the Nazca Lines."

"They look like the marks I saw on the Dark Signers," I mumble.

"Most likely because they are. The truth about the Lines has been sealed away in history, only known to us." The spider line below us suddenly lights up. "Recently, the lines have disappeared from the plains where they have been for as long as humanity remembers. Their disappearances are being caused by Dark Signers." The spider mark glows brightly before disappearing.

"When I faced Kiryu, he had a mark like ours," Yusei says. "He put up this barrier of light that made all of the battle damage real, then used a type of synchro summoning that he called Dark Synchro."

"The power of duels was originally created to be based on life," Goodwin explains. "It would only be fitting that a Dark Signer's fighting style would be based on death and darkness."

"Creepy," I say.

"Quite. Upon the appearance of one of the geoglyphs, a Dark Signer is sure to come with it. Now that they've come to Neo Domino, the people of the city are in a life-or-death situation."

"I've seen that firsthand. When Kiryu summoned his Earthbound monster, people around Satellite were absorbed into it. It was like they were dying and he called it a _sacrifice_." I watch Yusei's fists clench from anger.

"Their actions have already caused casualties far beyond my calculations," Goodwin agrees. "Just as you saw in Satellite, Yusei, hundreds of people around the recent appearance here have gone missing."

The scene forms to the Arcadia Movement building. Aki tenses up beside me. The huge lizard and hummingbird I saw in my vision are grabbing the building, shaking it and making vicious noises.

"These creatures attacking Arcadia are known as Earthbound Immortals. They're gods summoned by the Dark Signers by the sacrifice of people."

"So, what happens to people when they're sacrificed?" Jack asks warily.

"I'm afraid I don't know. Nevertheless, this requires immediate action. If nothing is done, then Satellite will crumble and this city will be reduced to nothing, before the entire world follows it."

We're all quiet then, letting the gravity of our situation fall on top of us. I think that I could help more if I actually knew what I was and how I fit into this story of theirs.

"This battle has been unavoidable from the very beginning. As it is, you are light and dark. The only possible people who can defeat the Dark Signers are the Signers."

"To hell with fate," Jack scoffs, "I'm going to decide what I'm going to do, and no one can stop me."

Yusei and I turn to collectively glare at Jack.

"Listen, Jack," I say harshly, "I know you're not clear on the whole 'friendship' thing, but we need everyone's help on this. You're going to follow this path whether you like it or not, because if you think about stepping out of it, I'm going to be the one to stop you and turn you back around."

He scowls.

Yusei turns back to Goodwin. "I mentioned before that I met one of my old friends Kiryu... I thought he was still in the Detention Center, but he was a Dark Signer. How did that happen?"

"I'm sure it would be best not to tell you," Goodwin answers.

"Oh, come on, enough of your shit," Jack groans.

"If you don't say something, I will," I grumble. "When I was with Kiryu, he told me that he was given a second chance at life. That some dark force or whatever came to him and offered him immense power and new life in exchange for the destruction of the Signers. The vision I had in the hospital was of the Dark Signers and just what made them how they are—I think that all of them have to have two conditions. They have to be dead, and they have to want to take revenge on someone or something."

"If there's some way we could revert Kiryu and the others back to their original states..." Yusei looks at the floor, his eyes watching the Immortals tear at Arcadia.

"There is no possible way," Goodwin sighs. "Dark Signers are souls of the dead who have awakened to their abilities. They're no longer of this world."

"Dead people can't just _come back_ to life," Jack retorts.

"And yet you have seen the dead walk with you."

Jack shuts up.

"Hey, Goodwin," I say meekly. "I'm not sure if you can answer this, but I have sort of an important question. A day or so ago, I was taken to where the Dark Signers operate from, and Kiryu said that he was trying to turn me into one of them. He threw my body into this sea of energy, but when he pulled me out again nothing had changed and he complained about how he couldn't seem to kill me. Then he mentioned that my mark made it impossible for me to take on a new one, or even die by his hand. Is it possible for a Signer to become Dark or to die from a Dark Signer?"

"Signers are human beings, flesh and blood, like everyone else. It's possible for them to die like everyone else, but even more so by the hand of a Dark Signer. Losing a duel or anything under the operation of one of them could cause a Signer to die. As per the matter of taking on their mark, a Dark Signer also could turn a Signer Dark if they choose." Goodwin frowns. "If this is the case, Silvan, then you're definitely not a Signer."

"_Awesome_," I mumble.

"Destiny has been set in motion," Goodwin continues. "There will be no turning back from here. It is time for you to decide if you want to embrace your fates or let the world perish—your time is running out." The room suddenly turns back into the altar, and Goodwin pushes past us to leave the room.

"Silvan," Aki says quietly, "you never mentioned that you were taken by a Dark Signer."

"Probably because I had no idea what was going on for the first few minutes," I sigh. "I'm pretty sure Misty took me from Arcadia after I pushed you out from under that wall, because when I woke up she was talking to Kiryu about me being someone he had in mind for the mark of the killer whale." Aki stares at me in concern, and I wave my hands quickly. "I-I'm all right, though! I'm fine!"

Ruka peers up at the altar. "What are we gonna do, guys?"

Yusei exhales and walks out after Goodwin without saying a word. Aki moves to follow him—I know she wants to say something. I stop her. "When he gets like this, you don't talk to him unless he talks to you." Aki gives me a look of despair, but seems to agree. "This room gives me the creeps," I mumble. I walk out, stumbling up the dark stairs, followed by my friends and Jack.

Yusei's gone somewhere, and Evan, Jeiricho, and Darragh appear to be talking more with Mikage about Arcadia. Evan's writing down all he can.

I split myself off from the rest of the group and wander until I reach a sliding glass door that leads into what looks less like a courtyard and more like a huge park. There are rolling hills and tall oak trees, gardens, places to sit. Goodwin seems to be a pretty extravagant guy, for all the cheap things he does.

I pull my spell book out and flip through a couple of the pages, then toss it onto a bench a ways into the courtyard. I peel my jacket off and toss it on top of the book, sitting beside the lump of leather. I don't really want to look at it right now.

I see my mark, standing out in black against the white skin of my arm, and remember the pain it's caused me, the insight I've gained from it, and the trouble I've gotten myself into for the sake of it. It's a blessing and a curse, really. I've been through so much shit because of it—more than a person should have in a life time.

I remember the day I left Satellite, looking back on Martha seeing it on the Bible. I look up at the sky. "Are you finished screwing me over, God? How 'bout some answers instead of more questions?"

I get no answer, which is what I expected. I never get answers without looking for them, anyways. It's apparent that I need to look for these answers, but the only problem is that I don't know where to look. It's always the same problem for me.

I exhale, put my other hand over my mark, and lean back over the bench to stare at the shade of a nearby tree. If I'm not a Signer, what the hell am I? Is whoever's causing me this expecting me to just become some prophet and figure it out right away?

I go over my mysteries in my mind. My mark, what it means. Who gave it to me. What its purpose is. What connection it has to the Crimson Dragon. That fucking crow, asking me to 'find it.'

If only I was a normal person, with normal questions like what do I wear tomorrow and what am I going to have for lunch. Things are never that easy, though, and I know that they never will be.

"You have a moment, mind reader?"

I glance up and Yusei sits down next to me. "I have all the damned moments in the world. The only problem is that I can't listen to your thoughts unless you turn them into words."

"Right." He leans back against the bench with me. "Would you be willing to tell me the details of your experience with Kiryu?"

I sigh, but it turns into a sarcastic sort of laugh. "You're moping about Kiryu, aren't you? What happened to him wasn't your fault."

"It feels like it is."

"It isn't your fault," I press. "Don't act like it is—that's just what he wants you to believe. He feels hurt by what happened to him, and he needs someone to blame. Whatever's controlling him is telling him to blame you because you're a Signer."

"I think that he honestly believes I turned him in. That I was the one who killed him." Yusei puts his face in his hands. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Yusei—"

"Good fucking _God,_ Yusei!" It seems like Jack comes out of nowhere. It happens so quickly that I don't have time to react, but Jack yanks Yusei off of the bench and swings his fist, nailing him in the stomach.

I sit there, astonished, while Yusei reels and tries to regain his breath. Jack hits him again, in the face this time, and Yusei punches back.

I register finally and jump up, my mark shooting sparks, and shove my way in between them. "_ENOUGH_!"

The ground cracks under my feet as I force them apart. I turn to Jack, crushing his foot with the heel of my boot—when he doubles over, I slap him across the face as hard as I possibly can. While he deals with that pain, I whirl around and smack Yusei.

They collectively inhale from shock and pain. I push them farther away from each other. "The two of you need to chill out and get the _fuck_ over yourselves!"

Jack, irritatedly rubbing his cheek, exclaims, "Where did you go? Where's the Yusei Fudo that dragged me off of my stupid throne and tried kicking some sense into me? Where the hell did that Yusei go? I'm half-convinced that you're the one who's died rather than Kiryu! Maybe he was our friend at some point, but now he isn't and you need to deal with it!"

"Jack," I growl, "you're right on all kinds of _fucking_ levels, but starting a fight isn't necessary. Stop making so many dick moves. Hitting people really isn't how you rebuild friendships—I helped build your duel runner, and I can take it apart, too!"

I turn to Yusei. "_Look_, Yusei, Kiryu was our friend. That's something that's not going to change. Somewhere deep inside of him, he's the guy we remember with the same dumb dream of keeping Satellite safe from every bad thing and every stupid beatnik that wanders the streets. He's still Kiryu Kyosuke—the only catch is that he's been taken over by some freaky dark force. I have known you for almost eighteen fucking years, and you've always believed that the bonds people form with each other last forever. Don't you dare give up that hope and blame yourself for something that was completely out of your hands. I don't believe Goodwin when he says the Dark Signers can't be saved, because Kiryu is too stubborn to die. In the end, you're going to have to defeat Kiryu—it's the only way to fix the world—but when you do, you're going to make up and he's not going to stay dead. Okay?"

"Okay," he mumbles. "Why did you hit me?"

"Because you were being stupid," I retort. "I expect that when I step out from between you two, there'll be no more fighting." Jack and Yusei nod slightly, and I clear out from between them.

Jack stares at the cracks in the ground. "How much are you going to break that belongs to Goodwin, Silvan?"

"I broke Divine's windows three times," I tell him. "I'll break more shit if I need to prove anything else. Now, both of you, make up and get your heads out of your asses."

"Thanks, Silvan," Yusei mutters. "You too, I guess, Jack. The world is in danger and I'm here grieving over something that's already happened—something that I couldn't have stopped. I'll fight."

"Good. I don't want to be alone in this," Jack retorts. "Are you in, Silvan?"

I scoff. "Do I have much of a choice? Of course I'm in. Someone has to keep an eye on you guys."

"_Please_ don't crush all of the bones in my foot next time," Jack grumbles.

"Punishment fits the crime," I respond loosely.

Aki suddenly appears, coming towards where we are. "I've decided that I'm going to fight."

Ruka trails behind her. "I'm going to fight, too."

"So are we," Yusei tells them.

Rua peeks out from behind Ruka. "I've decided something, too! Yusei, you're really cool because you always fight and believe in yourself. Jack, even though you're not King anymore, I still think you're really cool—I'm going to try to be just like you guys!"

Jack scoffs. "Just because I'm not King anymore doesn't mean I'm not the _best._"

I laugh loudly. Jack shoots me a look. "Sorry not sorry," I say.

* * *

Evan stands with me, Yusei, and Aki along the balcony outside of the office in Goodwin's estate.

He's told me that Jeiricho and Darragh have left, searching for a place to belong again. He passed on the message that they wanted to thank me for opening up their eyes to the world, and also for giving them the courage to leave Arcadia. Part of me hopes to see them again to see how far they take themselves.

The sun is setting, reflecting red and orange light off of the sound in the distance. Aki cocks her head to the side. "Do you think that the sunset was still this nice 5,000 years ago?"

"I doubt there was as much pollution as there is now," I retort, "but it was probably pretty nice."

"Let's hope it stays that way," Yusei remarks. "Now that we've all settled into our decisions, it's our job to make sure the sun sets in the future."

It's comments like that that reassure me of one thing: Yusei's really dedicating himself to this, which means we'll put up a good fight.

"You're brooding again, Silvan," Evan remarks.

"Yes, and if you change my emotions one more time, I'm going to smack you in the face."

"Which _hurts_," Yusei tells him.

"Why is your aura so negative?"

"I still don't know where I am in this," I say. "One moment, I think that I'm pretty close to figuring out just what my purpose is, and suddenly I have the sign of the Crimson Dragon on my back. I just want to know what I'm supposed to be doing. It's confusing, and I've had enough of that in my life."

"We'll figure it out, Silvan," Aki reassures me.

I appreciate her support, but it doesn't help much. I turn to Evan. "Hey, what do you know about crows?"

"Crows? Like the birds?"

"Mmhm."

"Well, they can range in size from a little stuffed animal to a medium sized domestic animal. In old legends, they're supposed to be spirit guides for souls crossing the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead."

"A spirit guide," I muse. "_Huh._"

"Why are you asking?"

"When I was with the Dark Signers, I had this vision of this huge crow coming to me. It talked to me in Celtic and told me to come looking for it. I'm positive it could be a clue to uncovering what piece I'm supposed to be in this godforsaken puzzle, but I don't even know where I'm supposed to look for a giant crow."

"There are crows all over the badlands and the heaps in Satellite," Yusei offers, "but they're pretty small."

"Yeah, the one I saw probably had a wingspan of my torso to my forearms."

"Hm."

I sigh and glance back at the waves in the distance, reflecting sunlight back at me. Mikage comes running onto the terrace all of a sudden, Jack trailing behind her. "Something's gone wrong in Satellite."

"What?" Yusei and I say at the same time. We're both concerned about the people we've left there.

We gather around Mikage, who shows us an image of a creepy looking black fog running over Satellite. "This fog came from an abnormality somewhere deep in Satellite. We've been unable to contact the Sector Security there thus far." Suddenly, the screen fizzles out, losing its signal.

"We need to leave for Satellite right away," Jack orders. "I refuse to just stand here and watch this."

Mikage flips the chart closed. "R-Right away, Mr. Atlas."

She rushes out of the room, and I turn to Yusei. "What do you think is going on?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm worried about the guys and Martha."

"Me too. I hope the house and the subway are out of its reach, or something."

"We'll be going to find out," Jack interrupts. "Silvan, I'll have your duel runner airlifted with us."

"U-Uh. Thanks, Jack." Then he turns and leaves. I shrug my shoulders. "God, he's changed."

"I hope it's a good thing that he did," Yusei replies. "We're going to need him."

"Yeah..."

Ruka traipses towards us. "So, we're going to Satellite? Sounds sort of... Exciting."

I scoff. "It'd be more exciting if we were going for a different reason."

Evan shifts beside me. "I never thought I'd dread going back home."

"Do you even remember Satellite?" I ask.

"Barely."

Yusei stifles a weak laugh. "Let's hope Martha doesn't do anything terrible to you."

I cover my mouth. "Oh holy shit, you left without telling her, didn't you?"

"You guys are starting to scare me!" Evan whines.

"You should be _very_ afraid," I laugh.

Jack comes jogging in again. "Come on—we're ready."

I whistle. "When you meant right now, you meant _right now_."

"What did you think I meant?" He retorts. "Let's go."

"Well, all right then." Evan walks beside me, and our group follows Jack up to the top of the mansion, where a helicopter rests on the helipad.

"Great," I groan. "More of _this_."

Yusei laughs a little as he walks past me. Suddenly, Trudge jumps out of the copter. "I've been advised to take you to Satellite, so I'm expecting no trouble. Fudo, Levine, I'm looking at you."

"Which one of us?" Evan retorts.

Trudge sees Evan standing beside me and shudders. "I'm _never_ going to get used to that."

"Couldn't handle one, it's going to be hell handling two," I laugh.

Goodwin suddenly comes up behind us with Mikage. "Good luck to all of you."

"Hey," Yusei says firmly, "after everything is over and done with, after the Dark Signers have been defeated, I'd like you to promise that you'll finish Daedalus Bridge."

"Do you intend to emulate the man from that legend, Yusei?"

"If that story is true, there'll be no reason to discriminate against Satellites."

Goodwin gives almost a rueful smile. "Very well."

Yusei, seeming satisfied, steps up into the helicopter. He helps Ruka, Rua, and Aki up, then me. Evan and Jack jump on after him. I hold a bar along the ceiling to brace myself as the copter rises off of the ground; Evan puts his arm around my shoulder to brace both of us.

We sail through the air, towards the cloudy Satellite sky. Mikage turns back in her seat at the front of the copter to address us. "The area the Dark Signers call home is deep in the B.A.D. Area, where the original reactor of Ener-D is."

"Ener-D?" Aki asks.

"It was a project to provide the city with clean energy through the power of duels. Yusei's father was the head supervisor, and Silvan's father designed and built all of the machines used in the project."

Trudge scoffs from the pilot's chair. "Why would a couple of Satellites be in charge of such a huge project?"

I'm about to answer, but Jack takes it for me. "Actually, Yusei and Silvan were born in Neo Domino."

"Wha—I guess I owe the two of you an apology for all the times I've called you Satellite scum!"

"_I_ was born in Satellite," Jack retorts angrily. "You got a _problem_ with that?"

Trudge doesn't answer, which makes Yusei and me laugh.

The helicopter continues across the sound and glides over Satellite. I see Martha's house passing under us, and Yusei quickly taps Trudge on his shoulder. "Land here."

Trudge shakes him off, but complies, and the helicopter comes closer to the ground until I feel us touch the grass.

Martha is outside, putting towels on a clothesline, while a few little children are playing tag in the grass. I recognize a few of them—Crow used to hang around with a bunch of these kids. When Martha sees us, she puts her hands on her hips. "Yusei, Silvan, it's only been three or four hours since you were last here. How many more times are you planning to leave and come back?"

"Sorry," I say guiltily.

She sees Jack and exhales. "Well, Jack Atlas, how long has it been since I've seen you?"

Jack rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Hey, Martha." Then she hugs him, and Jack turns red. Yusei and I muffle our laughter.

A bunch of the children playing on the other side of the house recognize the two of us and run to meet us. A few of the little boys take to telling Yusei how cool they think he is, while most of the little girls gather around me. I kneel down to meet their heights better, and someone puts a flower in my hair. I watch a bunch of the boys fawning over Yusei, and I whisper, "Boys are _funny_, aren't they?"

A few of the girls nod in agreement, eyes wide. One of them, with her dark hair in two short ponytails and small glasses, holds up a book that looks familiar to me. "Um, Miss Silvan, Martha told me that this is yours. Is it okay if I read it? I want to build a duel runner and be a turbo duelist someday."

"Sure," I say cheerfully. "There are a lot of little notes and subscripts in it—make sure to read those, too, because they're important."

"T-Thank you so much!"

Martha waves a towel she's holding. "Delia, Naomi, Yuka, Kyoko, leave Silvan be, she's a bit busy."

The little girls run off obediently, and it takes Martha swatting her towel to make the boys follow behind. I jump up onto my feet.

"Nice flower," Yusei comments.

"_Thank_ you," I say melodramatically. I take it out from behind my ear and wave it in his face. "It's a _daisy_."

He scoffs. Martha folds her towel over.

"This place is so different than I thought it'd be," Rua says. "I thought it'd be a lot scarier."

"I didn't think children could be so happy in a place like this," Ruka adds.

"You'd be surprised," I tell them. "Children know how to be optimistic about everything. Besides, this is what they know of life. It's the best they have."

Martha hangs up her towel, then turns to us again. There's a moment of silence before she says, "Evan Zachary Levine, is that you?"

Evan looks nervously at the ground. "H-Hey, Martha..."

She smiles like she's remembering. "You've grown so much. I'm so happy you're back."

"T-Thanks. I'm sorry about disappearing the way I did."

"All that matters is that you're back." She looks around him to me. "Silvan, I expect you to watch him like a hawk."

"She's been doing that already," Evan remarks.

"Why don't you all come inside," Martha suggests. "There's a mist out, and strange things are happening." She turns towards the children playing a ways away. "Five more minutes! Then come inside!"

"Can you tell us about the fog, Martha?" Yusei asks.

She leads us into the dining room, where everyone takes a seat except for me, Yusei, and Jack. "Of course—we could only see it from here, but it never reached us. That's why we're still here. Once it cleared away, everyone who'd been caught in it disappeared."

"What about Rally, Nerve, Tank, and Blitz?" I ask.

"They haven't returned, either." The table is quiet, and then Martha turns to Aki. "You must be Aki Izayoi—it's a pleasure to meet you, as well as have you here."

Aki smiles genuinely. She's happy to be accepted. "Thank you."

"As for you," Martha continues, turning to Yusei, "are you still living in fear of Kiryu?"

Yusei looks at the floor. "I'll get over it. I have my friends on my side."

Jack scoffs. "_I_ haven't made friends with _any_ of you yet."

"And you won't with that attitude," I retort. "I like my friends better when they don't steal my stuff and make sarcastic remarks."

He shoots a glare in my direction, which I gladly return, and Martha offers to let us stay for dinner. After a hearty acceptance from Rua and Ruka, I go outside where Jack had his Security pawns drop my duel runner. It thankfully looks the same as it did when I rolled it out of the Arcadia storage a few days ago, despite the paint being a little worn from use and from the heat of the Dark Signer glyphs.

Yusei approaches me from behind. "Hey, do you want to give me a hand?"

"Sure," I say. "I hear your duel runner is in need of a mechanic."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"A voice on the wind," I joke, taking my tools out from the back compartment of my own runner. I follow Yusei to where he left his duel runner earlier this morning and sit down beside it. "Aw, baby... You're all beat up."

"It took quite the fall during my duel with Kiryu," he says.

"Hey, remember when you asked me to detail my experience with Kiryu for you?" I ask.

"Yeah?"

"I'll detail mine if you detail yours." I can't read his mind anymore, so I can't see why Yusei is so afraid of him.

"Fine. Last time we told stories like this, I went first, so now you go." He takes a wrench from where it sits in the grass, most likely where he tossed it last time he was out here.

I pick out some more precise tools from my toolbox and mess with the routing inside while he props up the back wheel. "All right... Right after Divine took his death dive, Aki was sort of leaned up against the railing, crying out for him. There was this piece of ceiling that was going to fall on her, so I pushed her out of the way but I lost consciousness after that."

He nods his head, telling me he's listening.

"When I woke up, I couldn't move. It was like my bones and muscles were frozen in place. The air was freezing cold, but it was bone dry and it hurt to move. Someone was dragging me somewhere, then they put me up against the wall and suddenly Kiryu was there, talking to me."

"What did he say?" Yusei sounds displeased, but oddly curious.

"He told me about his death, and was kind of condescending while doing it. He explained that he wanted revenge on you for some mistake—the day he was arrested, he saw some Security patting you on the back and now he's assumed that you turned him in."

"He mentioned that."

"I tried to convince him that he'd thought wrong, but he kind of cut me off and said that he had no hard feelings for me. Then he started dragging me somewhere else, talking about how he'd transformed. Some dark force came to him in his prison cell and offered him a second life and unmeasurable power in exchange for the destruction of the Signers. Then he said 'that's where you come in.'"

He exhales, sounding upset. "Continue."

"He brought me to this room with a platform going four ways over this sea of light. Then he made this really weird, offhanded comment—"

"—what sort of offhanded comment?"

"I don't even know. Something about me being beautiful, and wondering if I would be 'more beautiful' as a Dark Signer." Yusei sort of scoffs. I stare at him. "What, you don't think I'm _beautiful_?" I tease.

"You're not _terrible_ looking," he says slowly, like he's picking his words carefully.

"_Okaaaaay_ then. Anyways, he made that weird comment and tossed my body over the side, into the sea under the platform. I'll spare you the details, but it was probably the worst pain I've felt in my life and I'll probably never feel anything worse. And, for the record, I've been through some painful shit."

"I believe you. Go on."

"There was sort of this... I don't know, power struggle. My mark wanted to turn purple, but it went back to green and then to purple again and kept doing that until it just stayed green and came over me completely. That's when I had the vision of the crow, telling me to find it in Celtic."

"Crows don't speak?" He says in confusion.

"It was weird. Like, I heard it cawing, but there was this voice in my head like there was a person talking to me. Then it flew away, and I went running after it to see what it meant, when I ran right into another vision."

"What was it of?"

"The Dark Signers, all of them, sitting around this big dusty wooden table and talking about their plan of action for you all—who they're meant to face."

"So maybe we're more informed than they think," he muses. "What did they say?"

"Something about a gate, and control towers. That we had three days until something bad happened. This guy named Rudger with a spider mark—"

"How do you know his name is Rudger?"

"I saw it in the vision I had at the hospital," I explain. "Rudger looked like the leader of them—he was ordering them around, telling them where they were supposed to wait for you and try to defeat you."

"Do you know all of the Dark Signers?"

"I think so," I say, trying my hardest to recall. "Rudger has the mark of the spider, but I don't know the name of his Immortal. Demak has the mark of the monkey, and his Immortal is called Cusillu, I think. Misty has the mark of the lizard and the Immortal Ccarayhua, Kiryu has the mark of the giant and the Immortal Ccapac Apu... Then there's this girl I don't remember the name of—she has the mark of the hummingbird and I think her Immortal is Aslla Piscu."

Yusei sort of shudders, continuing his work. "Alright."

"At the end of Rudger's meeting-thing, Kiryu said he was going to check on me in what he called the Envoy, which is what I think the sea was called. Then Misty told him that trying to give me a dark mark wasn't going to work, and told him about my spell book and what I did in Arcadia. The guy named Demak said that he was killing me for no reason, and then Kiryu said that even if they killed me or if they held me hostage, all of the Signers would do whatever they wanted."

Yusei doesn't comment this time.

"What?" I ask, thinking about Kiryu's comment of me 'imprinting on people without trying.' "Don't tell me he's right."

"Well, you've impacted all of us. You got Ruka and Aki out of Arcadia, not to mention befriending them both. Maybe Jack acts like he doesn't, but I know he cares about you. He always has. And me, well..." He pauses, readjusting the wheel. "...I'd lay down my life before I'd lay down yours, Silvan."

"You wouldn't have to—"

"—yes I would. You're important to me, too, don't forget that. I thought that I'd just barely survived in a duel against him, but I guess Kiryu knew where to try and finish me off after all."

"What does that mean?"

"You've always been there, Silvan—when everyone else left, you've always been the one there for me and for everyone else who needs it. I mean, up until now, you've known all of my thoughts and you know all of my secrets. You know _me_, and I guess that's my point. Don't you think it'd be really hard to lose someone like that?"

"I guess," I whisper.

He clears his throat. "So, uh, go on."

"Oh. Right. After he left, I saw Misty talking to Rudger. She told him something about me having a bright aura, and then wondered if it'd be better to keep me there even if I didn't accept a dark mark. The vision sort of stopped after that, when Kiryu pulled me back out of the Envoy. He sort of complained about me not being dead or dark and was going to push me back in, but Misty stopped him and told him that it wasn't going to work. Because of the Envoy, I could actually move after that—I caused a small earthquake that took them a little off guard and used it as an opportunity to run."

"Is that how you got outside?" He asks.

"No—I ran headfirst into Rudger, and then got bitten by a spider. That was another painful, numbing experience, and Kiryu dragged me down to what I think was a cell block. For a long time after that, I closed out the world and tried not to feel anything until someone picked me up, put me on a duel runner, and brought me here. End of story."

He gets up, appearing to be satisfied with the back wheel, and moves to the front. "I'm not sure whether or not that helped me or hurt me."

"What, the details? You asked."

"I know I asked, but I don't like hearing about my friends in peril."

I scoff. "Yusei Fudo, you should be well aware that we'll get into a helluva lot of peril in our lives. I'm only surprised that you haven't gotten used to it."

"Probably never will," he replies, then exhales deeply. "My turn."

I close the panel and climb onto the driver's seat to configure the controls. "I'm all ears."

"My story isn't exactly as long and vivid as yours, but it's probably almost as painful. Like I said before, I got into a Shadow Duel with Kiryu and the damage was very real."

"Like, Aki real?"

"Worse than Aki real. The only reason I survived the duel was because my duel runner decided to break down."

I pat the hood. "Always comes through."

"You could say that. It was very literally seconds before Kiryu's Immortal crushed me. The thing was huge, terrifying, and used the souls of living breathing people to summon it."

Just trying to imagine it, I can see why the experience was so terrifying.

"So, my duel runner broke down and sent me flying straight into a pile of debris—some of it got stuck in me." He gestures around the right side of his waist. I remember the pain I felt in the elevator at Arcadia, and how intense it had been—specifically at the right of my waist. "I don't remember a lot after that—just Crow taking me here and a lot of pain. I woke up the next morning and Martha told me that I'd almost lost my life."

"But you didn't," I say in an attempt to be helpful.

"Yeah, I didn't. I guess it's better for Kiryu, though, to have me living in fear."

"Hey, on the bright side, we both survived. On the downside, we're both terrified of Kiryu. I can tell you with the upmost sincerity that I am not going back to that dark hole anytime soon."

Yusei fakes a smile. "Unfortunately, I don't think either of us has a choice."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that..."

He readjusts the front wheel. "How's it looking, Doc?"

I put my ear jokingly to the screen. "Heartbeat is sound, vitals are stable. I diagnose a mild broken abdomen and prescribe one good tune-up—take a ride and call me in the morning." One side of his mouth pulls up as he finishes with the other wheel. He comes around to me and watches me finish configuring the controls and the duel screen. "What have you done so far?"

"I messed with the engine a lot yesterday. It was mostly the handling and the brakes that failed, but I checked it to make sure."

I put my foot on the brake and tap it a few times to make sure it can adequately move. "I played a little with the controls," I tell him. "If you've touched the handling, it should be fine from here."

I assume that he's silently agreeing with me. There's no sound as I reach for the screen again, and then I glance up; he's closer than I thought, his head almost on my shoulder and both of his arms resting around me on the accelerators. When he realizes I'm looking at him, his blue eyes flicker to mine.

I'm thinking of our conversation, and I think it's ridiculous, how high people hold each other, especially saying that their life is worth someone else's. I let myself laugh a little. "You know, even if it came down to it, I wouldn't let you give your life up for mine."

His face is stoic, dead serious. "You wouldn't be able to stop me."

"How do you know that?" I ask pointedly. "I'm pretty strong, you know. I recently smacked a couple of Grade A duelists into next summer."

"I wouldn't say next summer. Maybe more like next week. Nevertheless, you wouldn't get the chance to stop me."

"I would," I assure him. "I would stop you. I'm not worth your life."

He reaches down and clasps his hands around mine—I finally realize that they've been shaking, and he's holding them steady. There's a challenge in his blue eyes, and I can't seem to look away because of it. "_Yes,_ you are. And you should know me well enough not to argue."

"You should know me well enough to know that I'm going to argue," I remark. "If you ever attempt to give your life to save mine, Yusei Fudo, I will raise you from the dead and do more than just smack you across the face."

"Isn't that a nice thought," he says. He's so close, I can feel his breath on my face. "It's an easily evaded incident, as long as you avoid life-threatening situations."

"Like I said, my love affair with danger isn't much of my choice. It sort of comes, screws me over, and leaves me to regain what little I have left of my bearings. Lucky for you, I haven't died yet."

The smallest of smiles flickers across his face before it disappears. "Then you should have _nothing_ to worry about."

"Yusei!" A voice calls from somewhere. "Silvan! Supper's on!"

I rip my eyes from his, and he moves away, the spell between our odd conversation breaking. He turns the accelerator, and a light rev skips out of the engine. "That should do it."

I put my tools back into their box, wondering what he's thinking, and follow him back into Martha's house.

What the actual _fuck_ just happened?

Martha's serving a stew to the children huddled around the dinner table. I remember doing the same thing as a kid, sharing daily stories and happenings with my brother and our friends as the day came down to a close. I stand beside Aki with my stew—she's next to a window, one that gives almost a perfect view of Yusei's duel runner.

"What were you doing out there?" She asks suspiciously, fiddling with the spoon in her bowl.

"Honestly? I have no idea. One second, I'm trying to turn a duel runner on; the next, he's _this_ close to my face." I illustrate an inch with my index and thumb.

"All right. If you say so."

I exhale and put down some of the stew. "How are you liking Satellite so far? I seem to remember you wanting to visit."

"It's... Different than I expected," she answers. "From what you told me, I expected some tragic bleak place with no life and a bunch of people sitting out on the street, begging for things."

I scoff. "We aren't _that_ poor."

"No, I know, but you get what I mean. The sense of camaraderie here is really strong. I can see why Yusei has such a strong view on family and friendship."

"Well, yeah. That's pretty much all we've got around here." I glance at the table, where Yusei is spinning the Daedalus Bridge story he's spun a thousand times before. He's an expert storyteller, at least for the children, and it's impossible for them to take their eyes off of him. "If you don't have family, you have friends—if you don't have friends, you don't have anything. Maybe we don't have much hope, but we definitely know how to love those who need it."

"I like that," Aki tells me. "It's very humbling."

I laugh lightly. "Pfft, yeah, we're nothing if not _humble_."

We look to the table again, watching the children keep their eyes on Yusei.

"...and once we defeat the Dark Signers, they're going to connect the bridge. There'll be no more discrimination against us, and you'll be able to become who you want to become."

"Yusei's good at giving people hope, isn't he?" Aki asks.

"It's sort of his forte." I swallow another spoonful of the stew, when my mark begins to ache. It doesn't glow, but I know that something is wrong. Something is about to happen. I shove my bowl of stew into Aki's hands. "Hold this."

"Wha... Why?" She asks as I flip through the pages.

"Just trust me." I find the page I want. "_Bequeath dom shroud, ceocháin an ghleann_!"

The same moment the green dome falls over me and the rest of the room, a bolt of lightning crashes against the ground outside and the window shatters. The children scream, even though they're safe from falling glass.

Aki stares at me. "H-How did you know?"

"I... I just sort of _did_."

Yusei gets up from the table. Outside the window, a familiar man in a dark robe stands, casting a shadow of a spider. Rudger.

He holds his arm up, glowing with the mark of the spider. "I am Rudger. Any of you Signers bold enough to face me, show yourselves!"

Jack rises after Yusei, but is stopped. "If we duel here, everyone will get swallowed up by the geoglyph. Stay here and get everyone else to safety." To my surprise, Jack listens to him and starts rushing children out of the room. Yusei instructs me to lift the barrier, and so I do. "Rudger! I'll be dueling you—let's take it somewhere more private."

"Very well."

"I'm going with you," Aki says protectively.

"I'm going, too," I say.

Yusei puts his hand on my shoulder. "What you just did... You knew what was going to happen. Can you stay and help everyone get out safely?"

I exhale, irritated. "Fine. I expect you to put up a good fight and not almost-die this time."

There's something in his eyes, the challenge I saw there earlier. "I will."

Then he and Aki maneuver around me—I take one last look in their direction before I do the same.

* * *

***sighs* I don't think I understood until now just how difficult it is to attempt to portray Yusei in an accurate fashion—his character has so many freaking layers and I love it and hate it at the same time T-T**

**Obviously, more mysteries popped up in this chapter, mostly Silvan's connection to the rest of the Signers. Also what the hell that last conversation with the duel runner was O/O**

**Anyways, I was checking the web traffic for Ignorance the other day—holy hell, we already have more than 1,000 views! I was not aware that many people read this story! Thank you guys! :D I'd love to see what you guys have to say about it, give me a bit of feedback about what you think was good and what wasn't. Now that I know people actually read what I write, I'd kind of like to know if it was well received.**

**Thanks so much for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	14. Despair

**Welcome to Chapter 14! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

I shove open the door to the basement and stand there like a guardian angel while Jack ushers Martha and the girls down. "Hey! Hurry up, you three!"

The boys down the hall whisper some things to each other. I roll my eyes, because little boys always get into trouble and I can see them doing something really stupid. Rua and Ruka run past me to get into the basement—at the same moment, I'm hit with a burning sensation as my mark lights up, followed by Jack's and Ruka's. Evan urges them to go on, following down into the dimly lit room.

Suddenly, Martha dashes back outside, followed by Trudge.

"Martha!" I exclaim.

"Where are you going?" Jack demands.

"The boys—Taka, John, and Mitch aren't in the house!"

I prop the door open and follow Jack outside, in pursuit of Martha and Trudge. Outside, Rudger's spider mark hangs in the sky.

Martha takes one look at it, then runs in its direction.

"Martha!" Jack and I shout at the same time. Trudge begins to run after her, and I turn to Jack. "I'm going after them—they need protection when that Immortal comes around."

Jack nods at me, a rueful glare in his eye. I take off running in the direction Martha went, towards the slums in the west. I don't have the time to grab my duel runner—I run at a fairly average speed, anyways.

The trees get thick for a long way until I come out onto the westernmost street of the textile district. There are still rugs and things hanging in the windows of dilapidated shops, like the owners just dropped what they were doing and left.

I keep running down the road, towards the sigil of the spider in the sky, yelling for Martha and Trudge between catching my breath. I make my way forward, finding a wall of fire blocking my path, and make a sharp turn to the right, through an alley and over a dumpster. My mark pulses hotly, which tells me Aki and Yusei are nearby.

I find Martha and Trudge standing in front of one of the walls, staring beyond it and trying to see if anyone is on the other side. I skid to a stop, hyperventilating. "Jesus... Christ... Martha... You run... Really fast..."

"Help us look for the boys, Silvan," Martha orders quickly. She heads for a building that probably has a view over the geoglyph—I push in front of her.

"Let me go first, this place looks like it could fall at any moment."

"Silvan," Martha warns, but I'm too far away to hear the rest of her scolding words. They follow me up the main stairwell of the building, all the way to the highest point we can get to until we can see out of a window. Inside the geoglyph, I spot two of the boys who I saw down the hall earlier.

Aki, down on the field, sees us and begins to wave her arms. Then she points to a card on the field, one that looks like an altar with four places for fire to light up. Then she points at her glowing mark.

"What's she trying to say?" Trudge demands.

"She's trying to tell us that, if Rudger summons his Immortal while the boys are still here, they'll be sacrificed to summon the monster," I answer quickly. Not unless I can get them under my barrier.

"Oh dear," Martha groans. "How do we get them out of there?!"

"There's a third one," I tell her. "Look for him—I'll get the other two."

"How are you going to—"

I point menacingly at Trudge. "Don't question me, Security."

Surprised, he doesn't answer and doesn't object when I run down the stairs and back out to the geoglyph. As I'm running, my mark spits a green dome over me. Rudger is bringing his Immortal to the field.

I flip furiously through the pages of my spell book, reading as I run. I come around to the side of the wall where the boys are. "_Dheonú cumhacht dom a bhriseadh an bhalla síos le mo lámha_!" I toss my spell book on the ground as my hands begin to glow, and I press my palms against the wall of fire. Electricity crackles around my fingers and I somehow begin to rip a hole in the flames. "John! Mitch!"

The boys spot me, their forms beginning to glow violet, and run towards me. I wrench the walls open further as they jump through, falling to their knees and beginning to morph into purple balls of light. I tear my hands away from the walls and Jack comes out of nowhere, diving over the boys and keeping their souls from being taken.

The fire closes up behind me, and I pant from near-exhaustion; running and casting a physical spell at the same time is harder than I thought it'd be. Jack catches my eye, and I'm about to thank him when the ground heaves under us and a huge shadow falls over the ground. My mark shoots out flames and flickers red.

The biggest spider I've ever seen stands up over the geoglyph, red and black and snapping its huge pincers. I wonder how Yusei, who calls me to kill any spider he sees, is going to deal with this.

"I'm going to help Martha find the third one," I tell him. "Keep them safe."

"What else would I do?" He retorts. I grab my spell book off of the ground, stuff it in my pocket, and take off back towards the building. As I run, I hear Yusei's voice above the crackling flames of the geoglyph. Though I don't know what he's saying, I can tell he's losing his patience.

I sprint back up to the floor where Martha stands with Trudge, when suddenly the earth starts to shake. I find my way onto the floor, where Trudge is trying to keep both of them on their feet, and the ground develops deep cracks under me as the earthquake shifts to a halt.

"I heard Taka scream a level up," Martha says quickly, pulling herself back together. Then she takes off up the stairs, with me close behind her.

And she says _I_ get into too much danger.

I grab onto the door handle and Martha as we come out and see that the entire roof has sloped down and Taka is down at the very bottom of it—he hangs in the open air, and I'm afraid that he'll fall.

"Let go of me, Silvan," Martha commands. I shrink back obediently and she climbs carefully down to Taka, speaking calmly to him as they go. Trudge comes through the doorway next to me.

"That woman is made of iron," he huffs.

"But she's not indestructible," I say, my voice shaking from fear. Martha hooks her arm around Taka and begins to climb back up the roof. I reach out and grab his hand, passing him up to Trudge, then reach to help Martha pull herself up beside us.

I sense it before it happens, and I almost don't dive out in time to grab her hand before the roof moves again and she falls. My other hand desperately clutches a crumbling section of the rooftop, the other trying to keep a firm hold on Martha. "_Dammit_, Martha," I cry, straining myself to hold us both up. "Come on, help me here!"

"There isn't a hold for me, Silvan!" she calls. "I'm going to fall, and you need to let go so that you don't fall with me!"

"You're not giving up yet!" Trudge calls down. "Come on, Levine, put some muscle into it!"

I struggle to pull Martha a little farther up to where she could get a foothold somewhere. Gravity feels like it's increasing on me, but I refuse to let go of Martha. I will _not_ let her fall.

"Silvan, let go of me," she says gently.

"N...No!" I choke.

"Silvan Hayley Levine, if you don't let go of me, you'll be hurt too."

"I-I don't care! I'm not dropping you!"

Somewhere below me, I hear Jack and Yusei shouting for us. Martha looks up at me. "Be mindful and watch over them. Those boys cherish you, Silvan—do _not_ take that for granted." She releases my hand, and though I'm holding on as hard as my body will allow, her fingers begin to slip through mine.

"_Martha_," I warn, trying to hold on. "Martha, don't do this to me!"

I feel her falling, fingertips brushing my palms as she slips out of my grasp, and I hear myself shouting, a barrier of green energy appearing to catch Martha and missing her by inches. She doesn't hit the ground—instead, her body turns into a circle of violet energy and rushes into Rudger's Immortal.

The woman who was the closest thing I had to a mother, gone just like that.

In the distance, I hear Trudge and Taka yelling for help—they're having trouble not slipping down the roof—and Rudger laughing. My mark begins to grow so brightly, I almost can't see beyond it; I don't want to. The earth starts to shake under me, the most violent earthquake we've had yet, and a pillar of rock shoots out of the ground to prop up the roof. Trudge and Taka quickly regain their footing and run down to the other level. I'm still here, feeling the ground shake and every drop of water in the air for miles bubbling like lava. A sudden wind howls past me, whipping my hair around and sending everything into a frenzy. I feel flames licking out of my mark.

"Silvan!"

I can't hear them.

"Silvan!"

_I can't hear them._

"_SILVAN_!"

The light clears—Jack is shaking me out of it, his eyes wide with astonishment. When I see him, I fall to my knees and I suddenly can't stop sobbing. Jack sits down and stays there, letting me cry into his shoulder. "I could've saved her," I whisper. "But she fell right through my fingertips. It's my fault."

"It's not your fault."

"I could've saved her," I say again, my voice hoarse. "I could've saved her."

"You did what you could. Here, get up. You're stronger than this, Sil."

But right now, I'm not sure I am.

Jack helps me back along the rooftop, leading me down to the ground floor, where it's safer. He looks up Trudge. "You take them back to the house." Trudge scowls, but he complies, running off with Taka, Mitch, and John. Jack puts his hands on my shoulders. "Don't lose yourself, too, Silvan. You didn't smack me and Yusei for nothing."

He's right, and I know it. "I still feel responsible..."

"Silvan, if you believe that Kiryu can be saved, then I believe that everyone who was sacrificed to those damn Earthbound things can be saved, too. You promised you'd fight, now buck up and keep your promise!"

"Jack?"

"What?"

"You haven't changed at all."

"I've changed plenty—you just never noticed anything beyond it."

Rua and Ruka suddenly come running towards us from nowhere. "G-Guys! What's going on?"

Suddenly, there's a horrific, primal roar as Rudger's Immortal disappears, taking the fiery geoglyph with it. Aki comes jogging across to us. "Are you all right?!"

"We're fine," Jack answers.

"It doesn't look like Yusei is!" Ruka exclaims. For a moment, I'm terrified that something bad has happened to him too, but I look over onto the battlefield and see that he's fine, he's just sort of hunched over and looking defeated even though I know he won the duel.

Our group goes running over to him—I touch his shoulder. "Yusei?"

He looks up with dark, solemn eyes, and a flash of lightning spreads across the plain. I hear a laugh I know all too well, and I'm pretty sure Yusei knows it, too, because he gets up immediately and he and Jack stand in front of me like bodyguards.

Across the flat stretch of road, I see the Dark Signers I saw at the table, every last one of them, standing atop a half-destroyed building. Kiryu laughs again. "Oh, Silvaaaaan! You didn't think you'd get away that easily, did you?"

I scowl. A tremor rocks through the earth, but Kiryu doesn't stumble like I hoped he would. It just makes him laugh again.

"That was quite an interesting show," Rudger muses. I clench my fists. "However, this will be where the real battle begins. It's you or us."

"Probably _you_," Kiryu says, then bursts into another bout of laughter, like he thinks he's the funniest fucking thing ever.

Demak, completely cloaked, adds, "The outcomes of our battles shall be decided by the stars of fate."

"Our battle still awaits, Yusei!" Kiryu calls. "I still have time to take the rest of your friends before then~!"

I catch Kiryu's eye. "Good luck with that! You'll have to kill me before you get me, and last I checked, you can't do that either!"

A deeply disturbed frown cuts into his face—Rudger stops him from speaking anymore. "Each of you will face your fated opponent in due time. The girl knows where to go." Rudger points at me, and then all five of the Dark Signers turn and disappear into a sudden fog. Yusei, Jack, and Aki all run in after them; I don't have the heart to follow.

Rua stares at me. "W-What did he mean by that?"

"I had a vision," I say flatly. "I know where they'll be waiting. I'm not sure how Rudger knew that, though. Come on, let's go back to the house."

I walk between Rua and Ruka as we drag our feet to the house again. Martha won't be there when we get there. She might never be again. The woman who tucked me in at night, gave me a home, made sure I had enough to eat, put band-aids on my scrapes and an extra blanket on me in the winter... Gone.

"Silvan," Ruka asks quietly, "how am I supposed to fight a Dark Signer when I don't have my Signer Dragon?"

"Ancient Fairy Dragon," I say. "Right?"

"Yeah, that's... Right. How did you know?"

"I saw it in my vision. Demak, the Dark Signer you're meant to face, has it."

Ruka puts her face in her hands. "_Wonderful_."

"There's a way you're meant to beat him, and I know it. I just don't know what it is."

Ruka falls silent as we pass through the trees and return to the house. I see them inside, but I don't go in after them. I find myself wandering to my duel runner, sitting down on it and resting my head in my hands.

I could've saved her. I was this close. Even if I hadn't been able to pull her up, I'd made a barrier. I'd made it just where it should've been, only a second too late. Why didn't I do it? Why do I feel so useless?

I feel pressure building up in my chest. I struggle to keep myself from crying again.

I wonder if it felt like this earlier, when I chastised Yusei for thinking Kiryu's death was his fault. I feel so terrible about Martha, and now Yusei has more weighing on his mind. I breathe heavily through my fingers to suppress the emotion that wants to tumble out of me in a torrent of crying and screaming.

All of a sudden, beads of water drop onto my nose. I glance up, but the clouds in the sky aren't full of water. They're only dust. Water continues to fall on me from nowhere in particular until I'm sitting in the middle of my own personal rainstorm.

As I'm sitting there, my soaked hair hanging dully around my face, I think about how vulnerable I can be sometimes. God, it sucks to be human. Having feelings and forging relationships and caring about people... Sometimes it doesn't even feel worth the heartbreak.

It continues to rain on me, adding to my sullen mood.

"Silvan?" I look up—Yusei is standing a ways away from me, examining the rain cloud that only covers me.

I probably look small, sad, and pathetic. "Hi."

"Are you... Raining on yourself?"

"Yes. No. I don't know," I groan. I lean my head on my hands again. "I just hate everything right now. Especially myself."

"You're going to get your duel runner all wet," he tells me. "Come on. Get up." He holds out his hand, pulls me off of my duel runner, and stands just outside my rain cloud. "Hey... What happened to Martha—"

"I could've saved her, Yusei. I missed her by_ this much_. It's my fault she's..." I trail off, pressure building up in my chest again.

"It wasn't your fault, Silvan. It's Rudger we need to blame. There's nothing you could've—"

"—yes, I could've done something!" I interrupt. "I made a barrier to catch her, Yusei, but I _missed_ her! I was _this_ close! And don't use this morning as your excuse for me being stupid—this isn't like Kiryu. She was _three_ _inches_ from me, Yusei. I should've been able to save her..."

"You can't save everyone," he says gently. Darragh said the same thing to me in Arcadia, when I told him I would save Aki.

"I can _try_," I whisper.

"Silvan," he sighs, "We'll get Martha back, I promise. She'd want us to keep fighting, wouldn't she?"

I think of her last words to me, not to take Yusei or Jack's care for me for granted. "Yeah, I guess she would..."

"Right. So stop, okay? Don't hate yourself for something that's out of your hands. Come here." He takes my hand and stands in the rain with me, folding his arms comfortingly around my body. The last time I tried to hug him, he refused to touch me because he thought our marks would put us in pain. I don't think he's afraid of that anymore—I rest my head on his shoulder and breathe out the pressure in my ribcage. It feels good to have him here, willing to put up with me. I wonder how he bears it sometimes.

The rain thins out, then stops altogether. Yusei glances up. "Well, look at that. No more rain."

"I don't think it matters. You're soaking wet," I retort.

"Oh, be quiet—so are you." He takes a piece of my hair and wrings the moisture out of it. "I don't suppose there's a way you could make us not-wet."

"Possibly." I try to think as sunny as I can—one of my best friends is here, giving me good advice and letting me know that I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I suddenly feel my hair drying as beads of condensation float upwards from our clothes, skin, and hair before disappearing into the humid night sky.

"You're getting good at that," he says.

"It's emotion-based," I reply. "Things break when I'm angry, get wet when I'm sad, and dry up when I've been consoled."

"You were doing a lot of that when Martha fell," Yusei tells me, his eyebrows narrowing in displeasure. "You caused this huge, off-the-Richter earthquake and whipped up a pretty high speed wind, not to mention the air started exploding and the flames on the geoglyph got higher and hotter."

"I'm sorry. I guess there are times when I really can't control my powers—not like I thought I could. I've been thinking, lately, that whatever mystical force that decided to give me and Evan psychic abilities specifically put it so that, if I can't control myself, Evan can."

"That's right—he's empathetic. It doesn't sound like a coincidence, now that you mention it." We both simultaneously realize that we're still touching—his hands are on my waist and mine are on his shoulders—and we just sort of retreat from each other like two wary armies. Then Yusei clears his throat. "I guess, now that you feel a bit better, we should go inside. We're all sort of curious about where we're meant to go."

I sigh as I remember Rudger singling me out. "All right. Let's get it over with."

He puts his hand gently on my shoulder and guides me inside—it still hurts, seeing the house without her in it. I make an important mental note to crush Rudger with a boulder as soon as I see him next.

Eight or so pairs of eyes find their way to me, vying for clarification of any kind.

"All right," I begin. "In my vision, I saw every one of the Dark Signers changing and dying. Their dying wishes corresponded directly to you, so I'm thinking that certain Signers need to face certain Dark Signers, otherwise they won't really be defeated."

"Fair enough," Jack exhales.

"They mentioned something about towers, that they'd be waiting for you at specific towers in specific cardinal directions," I explain. "I'm not sure what they mean by it, though."

Mikage, from the corner of the room, raises two fingers. "I could possibly answer that. Silvan, when your father was designing the original Ener-D reactor, Yusei's father asked him to design four control towers as sort of a shut-off switch to Ener-D if anything was to go inherently wrong. As the reactor seems to be the source of the Dark Signers' power, shutting it down would shut them down. More specifically, they can only be shut down by the four of you. They were designed to be activated by the Signer Dragon duel cards."

"So, like, I could put Black Rose Dragon into a slot and the tower would activate?" Aki asks.

"Exactly," Mikage answers.

"Sounds viable to me," I say. "Ruka, you're meant to face the Dark Signer Demak at the western tower. I think his Earthbound Immortal is called Cusillu, which means monkey. He had some weird infatuation with duel monster spirits before he died, which is why you're meant to duel him."

Ruka nervously twiddles her thumbs.

"Yusei, I think Kiryu is supposed to wait for you at the eastern tower. You pretty much know why he wants to face you and what his Immortal is... Right?"

He exhales. "Yeah. Super excited about that."

"Jack," I say, "I don't really know much about the Dark Signer you're meant to face, other than the fact that she handed Divine's ass to him in a Shadow Duel. I know she's supposed to be at the southern tower, and that her Immortal is called Aslla Piscu."

Jack shifts uncomfortably in his chair. There's something he isn't saying, but I'm not sure I want to know what it is.

"Aki. You face Misty at the northern tower. As you know, she has her lizard Immortal Ccarayhua."

Aki nods bravely. "I'm ready for it."

"One issue," Trudge chimes. "You know where they are directional-wise—what about actual location-wise?"

"Um..."

Mikage comes to my rescue again. "I have a map of Satellite. The four towers are marked on it."

"Super," I say as cheerfully as possible.

"Should we all go together?" Trudge asks.

Jack exhales. "That'd be a waste of time. We're just dueling one-on-one, anyways. I'll be going alone—there's no point in sticking together."

"But we just got everyone together," Ruka whimpers.

"Jack may have a point, though," Yusei remarks. "It shouldn't matter if we're all apart. We're meant to face them alone, anyways."

"Okay, fine," Trudge laments. "Who goes with who?"

"Jack and I can go on our own," Yusei answers.

"I can transport Aki," Mikage volunteers.

"I'm going with Ruka!" Rua exclaims.

"Which means I'll take you both," Trudge responds.

"I'll stay behind and watch everyone," Evan says.

"So, everything is settled. There's still one question," Aki says. "Who gets Silvan?"

Yusei answers first. "Not me. I'd like Silvan as far away from Kiryu as humanly possible."

"Fair enough," I say.

"Um," Ruka says, looking at the table. "Maybe _I_ could use her help. I still need to get Ancient Fairy Dragon back."

"Sounds like a plan. How soon do we leave?"

Jack gets up. "Immediately."

He walks out the door, brushing past me, and I catch Evan's eye. "Will you be all right?" I ask.

"I can take care of children," he says flatly.

"That's not what I mean."

He looks around. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I don't remember where I could go, anyways."

"Part of me wants you with me," I mumble.

"Why? You don't need to be handicapped."

"If I lose control of my emotions... I'd want you there to calm me down."

He puts his hands on my shoulders. "You'll be all right. I'll see you in a bit, all right?"

"...all right." I go out the door and get to my duel runner, dusting off my helmet. It's been a bit since I've last ridden; I'll be glad to again.

I turn my attention to Yusei a little ways away, who's testing his brakes again.

"Don't be worried," I say. "You'll be fine."

"I hope so." He places his hand on my shoulder. "Watch your back, all right?"

"I will. You be careful, too."

A couple of Security cars pull up in front of the house, driven by Mikage and Trudge. Trudge honks his horn impatiently. "Let's go, you have city-saving to do!"

"Let me breathe first," I exclaim. "_Jeez,_ Trudge." I roll my duel runner around to the front of the house.

Trudge turns on the car—Rua and Ruka sit together in the back. "Try to keep up, Levine."

I scoff. Before we leave, I take a last look behind me, where Evan peeks through the window with the children to give me a thumbs up.

I nod at him, hoping he sees, and ride off beside Trudge and the twins. The point on Mikage's map that showed Ruka's tower isn't so far from here. Not long into the route, the air begins to grow eerie and heavy.

A loud caw catches my attention, and I turn as I go to what looks like hundreds of red-eyed ravens perched on dead trees across our path. They're all relatively small, which tells me that I shouldn't be interested in any of them.

"This is really creepy," Rua moans. "How far away is the tower?"

"Not much farther," Trudge calls back. "This one is pretty close."

A burst of dim light makes me turn to Ruka, who seems to have some sort of duel spirit floating in her lap. I recognize it from my vision of her, in the meadow with the puffball.

"Ruka?" I ask in confusion.

"You can _see_ Kuribon?" She asks in confusion. The spirit turns to me, staring with wide eyes.

"What's going on back there?" Trudge asks.

Suddenly, a blast of multicolored light rushes over Ruka, and then flies towards me. I swerve to avoid it, but it comes back around like a living being and envelops me in a swirl of white stars.

Then I'm falling, far _far_ down into what feels like a long tunnel, until I land heavily on what feels like grass. The light comes away from my eyes and I sit up, looking around at what seems like a grove of tall green trees.

"Trudge?" I ask carefully. "Rua? Ruka?"

The light isn't this bright in Satellite—wherever I am, it's not where I'm supposed to be. But that isn't the strangest part.

There's some kind of lavender material gathered on the grass around me, and it takes me a while to realize that it's a dress—one of those long, princess-y ones with flowing sleeves. Something is definitely wrong, because I wouldn't be caught dead in a dress.

I bring myself to my feet, rising past the long wavy material of the dress. I move my hands and my arms, legs and feet to make sure I haven't broken anything, and examine what I'm wearing.

It's sort of medieval styled, with a dragging skirt I'll have to lift up to walk and sleeves that billow out towards the grass. My boots are laced up and braced with metal, with heels so pointy that I sink into the dirt. My hair seems like it's been done by some world-class stylist, because I usually just wear it straight and down when right now, it's wildly curly and tossed over my right shoulder. I reach up to my head, where a circle of silver metal sits like a crown.

Who the _fucking_ hell decided to turn me into some _royal_?

_B'fhéidir go mbeadh sé níos éasca duit aird a íoc._

I swivel around. Whatever voice just spoke to me sounded like it was inches away. "Hello? Don't be a coward! Show yourself!"

I hear the voice again—for some reason, I can understand the Celtic like it's my native language.

_Wrong tongue, my dear. Like I said, you must pay attention. Perhaps I'd better understand you if you switched your dialect._

"I-I don't know how to speak Celtic!" I exclaim. "Who are you? Where are you? Will you please explain why I'm suddenly some uppity-looking princess?"

_Again with the languages, tsk_ _tsk. Do not tell me that you've forgotten how to translate?_

"Translate?" I groan. "I just want some answers!"

_Try again. Celtic this time, majesty._

_Majesty_? Where the _hell_ am I? "I don't know how!"

_Dagda help us. Imagine yourself speaking it—you understand, all that's left is to speak yourself. The language is written into your human binaries._

This is way crazy. "...L-Cosúil seo?"

_Ah, splendid! I do love it when I breakthrough!_

"_Please_ answer my questions!" I exclaim in Celtic. "Who are you? Where am I? Why am I dressed like this? If no one got the memo, I don't like things I can't run in!"

_All in due time, majesty. Look up._

I turn back to the front of the grove and peer upwards. Standing on a tree branch above my head is a crow the size of a house cat.

_Welcome to the Duel Monster Spirit World. I am Bás, and we have much work to do._

* * *

**This is one of those shorter chapters, but a lot has happened. Let's see what answers Bás can give us. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	15. Fate

**Helloooooo! Next chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

"W-Work? What do you mean, work? Take me back to Satellite!"

Bás glides down from the tree and lands on my shoulder. _Pave your path forward, majesty. I will explain as you go. _

"You don't understand—I need to be in the real world right now! My friends are trying to save our city!"

_As I am well aware. I am here to assist you. You see, you have not been properly trained and my Lady is not pleased because of it._

"Train?! I don't need training! I don't understand any of this," I groan. "Why did you come to me? You asked me to find you."

_Did you not?_ Bás preens his feathers. _You have quite a purpose, majesty, and I have been appointed as your guide to make sure you achieve that purpose. _

"That's another thing," I grumble, "Stop calling me 'majesty.' My name is Silvan, and I'm not any kind of royalty."

_Are you quite sure of that? My Lady has made it quite clear that you are the highest of her children. _

"Oh my God," I moan. "There you go being cryptic again! Who is this 'lady?' What do you keep talking about?"

_All in due time, as I've promised. Stop yourself up this ridge. _

I come up a cresting hill, where I find a dried up river bed. A strange looking staff is stuck into the bedrock at the bottom of the river.

_Flip the dial on the Minus staff. We must have water if you are to adequately embrace your abilities. _

"O...kay." I slide down into the riverbed and put my hands on the thing Bás called a Minus staff—it looks like a long metal stick with a 'U' shaped piece at the top and a long horizontal dial along the hilt. It's flipped to one side, so I flip it back. The earth under me shakes as water pools back into the crevice and I rush to get out of the way before I'm taken under by water, only to be dragged back down.

_Remain calm,_ Bás' voice sounds in my mind.

_Calm? I'm drowning, you idiotic bird, _I think.

_Liquid bends to your will, majesty. Will it to release you._

What does he mean? I try to tread water, only to be shoved back under and pulled along the river.

_You've done it before in your world, so do it here. Focus on what you want to do, where you want the water to take you. _

"What... Does... That... Mean?!" The river explodes around me, sending my body shooting up into the air and flopping back to the grass like the body of a fish. I cough up water, highly irritated. "What the actual fuck, Bás?"

_A wild one, aren't you? _He replies inquisitively. _I see that you can only keep a hold on your powers through emotion. That is not the ideal form of control._

"What am I supposed to do?" I complain, pushing myself onto my feet. The dress is heavy with water, and I pull the moisture out with my irritation. "If you think using emotion is bad, what the hell do you expect me to do?"

_Emotion is a silly,_ _worthless way to access your ability. Willpower is a much stronger expression._

"Willpower. _Pfft_. You still haven't answered anything. I'm not sure I want to listen to you if you aren't going to agree with me."

_And the little queen embraces her strength._ Bás lets out a short string of squawks, sort of like laughter. _Every time you succeed in what I advise, I will answer one of your silly inquiries. _

"That's more like it," I grumble. "Why did you bring me here?"

_Ah ah ah, you haven't done anything correctly yet. _Bás glides over the river. _Use the strength of your will to bend this river. _

_Willpower_. How is that supposed to work? I want answers, though, so I'll have to do what he wants.

I think of how making myself angry will cause things to break or burn. The water in the air would even bubble. Maybe will is just vying for it to do what I want it to?

I stare at the river, and Bás circling over the water. _I want you to rise,_ I think.

_You'll have to do better than that, _Bás says impatiently.

I sharpen my focus, listening to the wind blow through the trees and the water crash against the dirt as it runs down to a distant lake. _Rise—_now.

The river bursts up out of its limits and widens into an impenetrable looking wall of water.

_Splendid! I'd say you aren't quite as unpracticed as I assumed. _

I keep my focus in check, struggling to keep it steady. "Okay... So answer my question."

_I was not able to contact you in the realm you currently reside in. The veil between our world and theirs is not easily traversed—this seemed like a good halfway point, as your Signer companion will already require your assistance here. _

"Make me do something else," I strain. "I need more answers."

_Very well—walk upon it. _

"Walk on water?" I scoff, and the water falls a little from my faltering. "I'm not God."

_Perhaps not, but you are quite close. _

What's that supposed to mean? I scowl to myself and drop my focus, which sends the river crashing back into the bedrock. Walk on fucking water. I wish I could write this off as a dream.

_You are hesitating, _Bás points out.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to walk on top of water," I answer incredulously.

_Do it the way you know how. An important part of your job description just so happens to be problem-solving._

More questions arise in my mind. Great.

'The way I know how...' Well, I don't spend my time trying to walk on top of water. What if it's some weird loophole?

I lift my dress off of the ground and will the water to freeze where I step, which allows me to cross.

_See? That wasn't so difficult, _Bás snipes. _Your question, my dear?_

"What exactly are you?" I say carefully.

_I am your spiritual guide. I am also my Lady's right hand advisor and messenger._

So freaking vague. My blood boils.

_Next... Create a bridge and return to me._

He lands on the other bank and I will a stream of water to freeze across the way in a makeshift bridge. Going across is almost like ice skating, the thin heels on my boots actually making it pretty easy to glide down to the other side.

_Charming. Your next question?_

"Who is this 'lady' you keep mentioning?"

_My master, Morrigan—ruler of beauty and death, and the great hand to twist the fate of every living thing. _

That was... Sort of specific?

_I advise you to make yourself a weapon from what you can take from the atmosphere._

A flick of my wrist makes a small icy dagger in my hand—I'm not sure if he thinks I'm just a novice with my power, or if he actually wants to answer my questions.

_You're quite good at this._

"What exactly did you expect?" I ask, offended. "I'm not a beginner. I've been playing with my power for a while. Now, why am I dressed like this?"

_They are only some of the garments Morrigan instructs her children to wear—they're tailored to reflect your status as the highest of her offspring as well as provide movement and assistance where you're abilities lie. _He cocks his head to the side._ Are they not to your liking?_

I don't understand most of what he said, but I do remember how my shoes helped me to slide on the ice. Maybe that's what he means? "Not to, uh... _Offend_ Morrigan, but I'm not really a dress kind of girl."

_I see. _

A wind blows past my ears, brushing my hair back. It's straight and around my shoulders again—the dress is gone and I'm suddenly wearing what I think is a fitted tunic and pants. He left me with the circlet and the boots, but I'm just happy I'm not wearing a skirt.

Bás ruffles his feathers. _Is this, perhaps, more to your appreciation?_

"Y-Yeah, I guess. Thank you? What's the next thing I have to do?"

_I don't believe we have any more to do here. Cross back to the other side of the river and begin your journey to the town, in the northwest. _

I slide back across my bridge and Bás flies back onto my shoulder. "Would you mind explaining to me about Morrigan's children?"

_Morrigan regulates beauty and death in the world with the other designated deities, but she is also the sole hand of fate. She isn't able to personally bend the fate of those who really need it, and so she creates her children to walk among humans and change their fate as it requires. The specific title is Aeron._

"A-And you're trying to tell me that I'm one of these 'children,' or whatever?"

_An Aeron, yes._

"So now I have a technical term for what I should be but I'm really not. Last time I checked, I'm very human." Sometimes more than I think I should be.

_As you may think, but not everything is as it seems._

I groan. "Stop it with the cryptics!"

_I have been advised not to reveal all truth—only what is necessary._

"Wonderful. Are you going to make me do more crud before you answer my questions, or can I just shoot off some more?"

_We have quite the walk ahead of us—you may ask what you like._

I scoff. "You can fly."

_Perhaps you are right, but I must guard you. It would be unwise for me to leave you behind. _

"Fair enough. Why am I Morrigan's best child, or whatever you said?"

_You were created for an important purpose, _he answers. _Perhaps more important than any change of fate in all of history. It is you who controls the fate of the humans meant to save your world._

"What, you mean... The Signers? I can't control their fate. Goodwin said their fate was set in stone."

_I am not familiar with your humans, but fate is a funny thing. It is extremely malleable, despite having a plan of the way it must go. That is your job, as a child of Morrigan, to make sure everything remains the way it must in order for the future to accurately run its course._

"I still don't get it—the Crimson Dragon is supposed to—"

_The Red Dragon Star is an ancient force that relies on fate. Without Morrigan, it is nothing. In order for it to keep its vessels safe, it requested a guide to help steer them onto the right path. That guide became you._

"You're telling me that I'm not human, I'm some Aeron child of a fate deity, and I'm supposed to help control the Signers," I say flatly. "Do you realize how crazy that sounds?"

_Do you not believe me?_

"Well, you don't have any proof," I snipe.

_Don't I? If you did not exist, Silvan Levine, the world you know of would be a very different place. The simple existence of a human being can change the way things are, but the existence of one like you can change a world. Have you not already forged strong bonds with countless people? Think what would happen if you didn't exist. What would happen if you were not a part of their lives? Even more so, what would happen if you had not told them to do something, or told them not to do something? _

I think of what I've done for my friends. What they've risked for me. The times that we've laughed and spoken and cried and experienced things we would've never experienced if it wasn't for each other... Would it have been different if I wasn't a part of it? Would Aki and Ruka have escaped Arcadia? Would Evan have left Satellite? Would Kiryu still have died? Would Yusei and Jack still have fought? The number of things that would've happened if I hadn't stopped them or put them into motion isn't negligible. Is it possible that Bás is right? I don't want him to be.

"...what about my mark? Can you tell me about it?"

_Na Tríonóide. The Trinity, the sacred seal of Morrigan. She is a Tripartite being, which means that she controls three separate areas of life. Each opening in the mark is dedicated to a certain one of her attributes._

"Death, fate, and beauty is what you said, isn't it?"

_Quite. _

"Aren't there other gods and goddesses in mythology that control death and beauty? Like Aphrodite or Osiris?"

_The polytheistics all believe in the same deities—they simply go by different names wherever you travel. _

"All right..."

_Do you have any more questions for me?_

"I have Morrigan's mark on my arm, but lately the mark of the Crimson Dragon's showed up on me, too. What does that mean?"

_Though you serve Morrigan, you were created for the Dragon's service. Its mark will remain on you for as long as it requires you to bend fate. _

I exhale.

_You still do not believe me, do you?_

"I'm having trouble," I admit. The road thins out, the trees suddenly becoming sparse as we head down a tall hill towards a little town. "You can't expect me to just take all of this when I've known certain things all of my life."

_You are certainly different from the others—Morrigan made it so that you were born as a human, so that you could feel and experience as they do and better interact with those you were to assist. _

"Well, why? If I'm so important, why didn't she just make me herself?"

_She didn't quite have the time._

I slide down a rocky slope. Bás flaps his wings to stay upright. "What do you mean, she didn't have the time?"

_Someone changed the stars of fate and threw everything out of balance. The Dragon had informed Morrigan that she had more time to create you, when in fact the man who twisted the stars did what he did and forced her to forge you from a human. _

A last minute creation. An _accident_. The story of my birth suddenly makes sense. "So. I'm not supposed to exist the way I am now."

_You are fine. If Morrigan had been unsatisfied, she would have started over. _

"Glad to know I'm such a lovely mistake."

_I have offended you._

I swat him off of my shoulder without answering. We enter the town, a little dollhouse place with cobblestone streets and uneven houses built slanted on a mountain slope. It's completely empty, with Minus staves stabbed into the streets all around me. "God, this place is empty."

_The Duel Monster spirits have all been captured by Zeman, the Ape King. He is the servant of the bearer of Cusillu's mark. _

Demak, the guy with the monkey mark, controlling an Ape King. _Fitting_.

"Silvan!" A voice whisper-shouts.

"Ruka?" I ask, peering around.

She peeks out from behind a pile of wooden crates, a boy perched behind her. "Wow, you look different! What are you doing here?"

"I-I came without knowing, sort of," I tell her. "And the costume change was a little out of my hands. What's going on? Why are you hiding?"

The boy jumps out into the street, looking around. "Huh. They're gone."

Ruka runs up, throwing her arms around me. "I'm so glad you're here, Silvan! I need your help!"

"With what? I'm sort of confused as to what needs to be done here."

"I'm here to free Ancient Fairy Dragon," she answers. "I won't be able to defeat Demak until I do. He has her trapped here, with all the other duel monster spirits."

"So I guess this is your big moment," I say. "The huge problem you're meant to face as a Signer."

"I guess so." She spies Bás on my shoulder. "Silvan, is that the crow you mentioned envisioning before?"

Bás makes his strange laughing sound. _Why, you mentioned me? I feel so flattered. _

"I can still freeze you," I grumble.

The boy behind Ruka stares at me. "That's quite the ancient tongue. Where did you learn that?"

"I guess it's sort of written into my DNA," I reply exasperatedly. "I don't know how I know it."

"Fascinating. I'm Torunka, the Ancient Wizard!"

"Ancient? You look like a kid."

Torunka exhales in embarrassment. "It's an effect of Zeman's Minus Curse. The energy has made time flow in the opposite direction."

"Great," I say. "Magic and mysteries everywhere. Where do we start?"

"We need to find a spirit called Regulus," Ruka instructs. "Torunka was just about to bring me to him."

"WHA?! I promised no such thing!"

"Torunka," Ruka complains. "Do you want to save this world, or not?"

He sighs. "Fine. We need to go outside of the city, to the forest of Pojar."

"Sounds painful," I say.

_You're ridiculous_, Bás remarks.

"Let's go this way." Torunka waves his tall staff and guides us one way along the street, to what I think is the east. "So, um, Ruka, you told me you're a Signer... But you kind of failed to mention that you're friends with an Aeron."

"A... What?" Ruka looks at me, then back to Torunka. "What are you talking about?"

"Your friend? Isn't she an Aeron?" Torunka stares back at me. "I could've sworn you give off the energy of one."

"What's an Aeron, Silvan?" Ruka asks.

"It's an, um... It's a person or something that can bend fate. You know, like, control destiny."

"Those exist? I thought destiny was pretty set in stone."

"According to what I've heard, there are people that go around and bend destiny the way it's supposed to go, so that it fits the path that's already been laid out."

"Oh. Is Torunka... Right?"

I look at the ground. "I don't know."

"Guys," Torunka complains. "Monkeeeeys!"

I turn, where a bunch of monkeys in gladiator armor are running towards us, holding Minus staves of their own.

"Run!" Ruka exclaims, and we go sprinting off down the road.

Bás begins to squawk wildly. _Now is your chance! Move the elements, fend off those spirits!_

"Why should I? I'm mad at you!"

_Would you like to survive this ordeal, or not?_

I groan and stop in my tracks, standing between Ruka, Torunka, and the monkeys.

"Silvan!" Ruka exclaims. "What are you doing?!"

I will every possible drop of water down the road to change its phase, which ends up freezing a thick block of ice around the group of monkeys chasing us.

_Splendid! _Bás exclaims. _Keep running!_

Ruka stares at me in shock as I catch up with them. Torunka pulls on her as I run ahead of them.

"Another question," I huff, "Is it just water I can manipulate, or other things, too?"

_All of Morrigan's children bear a strong attraction to one element. It is the one they can use the easiest, though you can fiddle with the others if you are strong enough. _

"So mine's water?"

_Indeed. Morrigan thought that it would fit you—it is the element of femininity and the attribute of calm, clear-minded action. _

"Because I'm _totally_ calm, clear-minded, and feminine," I retort.

_You would be surprised,_ he responds.

I slow my steps as we reach a rocky inclimb. Ruka and Torunka catch up to me not soon after, hyperventilating.

"Is everyone okay?" I ask. For some reason, I'm not really all that out of breath.

"Yeah, just... Gimme a second..." Torunka sinks to the ground and just lays there for a while, catching his breath.

Ruka takes a lot of long inhales before she pulls herself upright. "All right—let's keep going."

"Nooooo," Torunka complains. "I'm an old man, I've run more than I've wanted to in a lifetime!"

"Well, now you're a kid, so you should suck it up and push on," Ruka instructs. "We have to find Regulus and save Ancient Fairy Dragon."

"As I'm well aware," he groans. "Go on without me—I can't move another inch."

_What a funny little spirit, _Bás muses.

Ruka sighs and holds her hand out for him. "Here, get up. I'll carry you."

"Wha... Seriously?" Torunka pulls himself up and Ruka lets him up onto her back. "T-Thanks, Ruka."

"Now we can keep moving," she exhales.

_This Signer is especially determined,_ Bás comments.

"They all are," I answer. "They have jobs to do, and they don't want to screw up."

_I should think that you would want to do the same._

"Will you be quiet? I refuse to believe that what you're telling me is the only explanation to who I'm supposed to be. I'm not some... Air-whatever."

_Aeron, _Bás snipes. _You'll have to accept what you are one way or another._

"I'm going to die first," I retort.

_That could be arranged._

I flick him off of my shoulder, and he glides away into the sky.

"Silvan?" Ruka asks, trudging up the hill with Torunka in tow. "What did you mean when you said you didn't know? What do you keep saying to that bird?"

"His name is Bás," I sigh. "Apparently, he's my spirit guide and a servant of the being that gave me my mark."

"You got some answers?" She exclaims earnestly.

"I wouldn't call them answers. According to him, I'm an Aeron in a human's body. I was supposedly created at the last minute because the Crimson Dragon needed an Aeron to steer the Signers onto the right path."

"What's so unbelievable about that?" Ruka asks. "It does sort of make sense."

"Yeah, but, if it is true, then is my whole life a lie? Is my brother not my brother and were my parents not my parents? How am I supposed to know what's right and wrong about me?"

"Silvan, maybe I don't know you very well considering we met less than a week ago, but one thing I've been sure of since we did was that you know who you are. You know what you like and what you don't, you know your strengths and weaknesses, and you know how to accomplish things. The fact that you could be something that controls fate doesn't really surprise me—it seems like you bend it all the time."

"What do you mean?" I ask flatly.

"Think with me for a moment. From what you've said, you were sort of just smacked on this world so that you could change its fate. And you've done that."

"How so?"

"If you hadn't been born, your brother wouldn't have left Satellite," she explains. "You wouldn't have been led to the Fortune Cup, where you met us. You wouldn't have gotten Aki to escape Arcadia. Jack and Yusei probably wouldn't have ever stopped arguing. You're acting like all of the little things you've done and the people you've touched haven't amounted to anything."

"Every human being is important that way," I tell her simply. "Don't you think, if you didn't exist, the world would be different? How about Rua or Jack or Aki or Yusei? Don't you think that the world would be drastically different without them, too?"

"That's not what I mean. Every person is unique and adds something to the world that no one else can. You're important, no matter what you are or how you came to be."

Bás comes back beside my ear. _You should listen to her, you know._

"Because I'm so ready to take your advice," I grumble.

_Do you not trust the girl? I would have assumed you would take her words, as they are not technically mine._

"Of course I trust her. I just don't trust you yet."

_What inquiry may I answer that would permit your trust to me?_ He asks.

"You can't trust a person just by asking them questions," I snipe.

_Though how they answer can very well decide if you will trust them in the future._

"You are one mystic freaking bird, you know that?"

_I will remain under the impression that this is a good thing._

"You're a pretty tough girl, Ruka," I hear Torunka say.

"Not really," she puffs. "I was always pretty sick as a kid."

"But I feel this energy! This... _Heroic_ energy!"

Ruka scoffs a little. "If anyone has heroic energy, it's my brother Rua."

"What's going on with him?" I ask.

"Because we've disappeared," she answers in displeasure, "he's taken on Demak."

I groan. "Ah, dammit, Rua..."

"So far, I feel he's been all right... But I'm worried."

"We need to get back, and soon."

"I agree. Torunka, can you tell us where the spirits captured are taken? If we know that, we'll know where Ancient Fairy Dragon is."

"I-I'm pretty sure they're taken to Zeman's castle, in the north."

"Is Zeman the leader of the monkeys we saw?"

"Yes. He sort of came out of nowhere."

There's frustration in Ruka's heart, and I feel it straight to her core. She has a lot on her mind, and I'm almost sorry I can't help her or Rua beyond freezing a bunch of primates into an alley.

_You are displeased about something, _Bás tells me, his beak pulling at the collar on my tunic.

"I've been displeased about a lot of things, lately," I answer. "Don't sound so surprised."

Bás' feathers ruffle and the rocks begin to clear away to an ominous looking patch of trees. They grow thicker and thicker as we go, and I notice leaves flying off of the ground and attaching themselves to trees.

"Whoa," Ruka says.

"The Minus energy here is so strong, time is moving backwards," Torunka observes. "We should be on guard. Regulus apparently started acting pretty strange when Zeman appeared... I'm not sure what to expect from him."

"How are we even supposed to find him?" I ask. "This forest has got to be huge."

"Regulus!" Ruka begins to shout. "Regulus! We need to speak with you!"

Torunka scrambles off of her back and jumps in front of her, shaking his hands. "No, no, no, shhh! What if we get attacked?"

"I'll just freeze them, or something," I reply.

"We'll be fine," Ruka adds. "Regulus? Hello! Please come out! We aren't your enemy!"

In the tree," Bás tells me. Do you sense it?

"Sense what?"

_The spirit, he answers. Look closely._

I listen to the world, trying hard to block out Ruka's yells for Regulus, and peer into the tall dark trees around us. At first, I don't see anything, until I focus harder and catch sight of a long swinging tail within the leaves.

_A cat swings its tail before pouncing,_ Bás comments.

I don't know what he means until I see the spirit sail down from the tree and land on a pile of moss-covered rocks. It's a huge, armored lion with a horn placed between its eyes—the blade of a Minus staff is trapped around its foreleg.

"Ruka, watch out," I say.

"Regulus?" She asks. "Are you Regulus?"

The lion growls. I notice tufts of fur and skin pulled aside in multiple wounds—maybe it's being hostile because it's injured?

"Please don't be afraid!" Ruka pleads. "We're not going to hurt you!"

Regulus bares its fangs and growls a little louder. I see Ruka jump, startled, and suddenly freeze in fear.

Torunka tries to cover for her. "U-Uh, Regulus, p-please hear us out! This young girl has come all the way from the world of the humans to save Ancient Fairy Dragon!"

Regulus rolls its big head questioningly to the side. "...what was that?"

"T-Torunka is right!" Ruka stutters. "We only want to talk!"

Regulus circles us, like we're prey it's examining.

_Do not just stay there, _Bás squawks._ I do not wish to be dined on—you should do something._

"And what do you propose I do?" I quip. "This thing obviously isn't listening to Ruka!"

"Please, help us, Regulus," Ruka pleads again. "I made a promise to Ancient Fairy Dragon, that I'd protect the spirit world! I can't do that without your help!"

"How dare you come into this forest and gloat about your misuse of Ancient Fairy Dragon's power!" Regulus roars. "For this, I will end you!"

"H-Huh?" Ruka asks.

_Confused thing, isn't he?_ Bás asks.

"What the hell is going on?" I say.

_The staff,_ Bás tells me. _The piece of the staff around its foreleg. _

"The Minus staff?" I ask. "What about it?"

_Put two and two together, you hopeless girl—that staff negates things. Makes the opposite._

"Oh!" I exclaim. "Ruka, the Minus staff on its leg! It's hearing the opposite of what you're saying!"

Torunka groans. "What a mess!"

Regulus circles back around. "You are vile villains! Your presence defiles this world, and I will not let you have your way!"

"You've got it wrong!" Ruka tries. "We aren't your enemies!"

It gives a rolling growl and swishes its tail again. I remember what Bás mentioned about pouncing and I jump forward to pull Ruka and Torunka out of the way before they can become cat toys. "Run!" I exclaim.

They run ahead and I take up the rear in case I need to use my power. Bás clings nervously to my shoulder. _Have you thought of anything yet? I was not pulling your leg when I mentioned that your job description requires problem-solving._

"Oh, be quiet!" I growl as I run.

"Torunka!" Ruka exclaims. "Can't you do anything?"

"I can't cast any magic in this state, if that's what you're implying!"

"What are we supposed to do?"

_Think, _Bás urges. _If someone hears the opposite of what you say, what shall you say to them?_

"I really don't like you," I reply, but I know what he wants me to do. "Ruka, stop! I have a plan!" I skid to a halt, and Torunka and Ruka follow suit. Regulus slows as well, coming back to circle us. "Hey, Regulus, you call yourself a spirit? I thought you were supposed to be powerful and scary, but you're a sorry excuse for a cat!"

"Silvan!" Ruka exclaims, sounding almost shocked. "What are you doing?"

_Clever girl, _Bás croons.

"Oh!" Torunka says, understanding. "I hate your guts, Regulus! You're a stupid, ugly, cowardly lion!"

"Such flippant flattery will bring you nothing!" Regulus returns, teeth bared.

"It's not working..." Torunka mumbles nervously.

_Something is approaching_, Bás interrupts.

"Christ," I groan. "Everything at once." I grab Ruka and Torunka and run behind a big fallen tree that's big enough to conceal us.

"What's going on?" Ruka asks. Four of Zeman's monkey henchmen suddenly approach, swinging their Minus staves.

"Regulus!" One of the monkeys declares. "By the order of Zeman the Ape King, we're catching you this time!" It points its Minus staff at Regulus, when suddenly one of the other monkeys grabs it.

"Are you crazy? He's got a Minus needle on his leg, don't you see?" The second monkey scolds. "Crossing their energies will turn it into Plus energy!"

While they're busy talking, Regulus is swinging its tail again. With a great roar, Regulus runs past the monkeys, driving them to follow it deeper into the forest.

"That was conveniently placed information," I say, climbing back over the log.

"I agree," Ruka replies. "Come on—I think I know what to do!" She runs off in the direction Regulus ran, followed by me and Torunka. "If only we could use one of those Minus staves to free Regulus... There are a bunch of them stuck in the trees around here. Maybe if we can use one on the monkeys, we'll be able to nab one of theirs."

"Sounds safe," I retort.

_Since when does safety matter to you?_ Bás comments.

"I'm getting sick of you really fast, here," I mumble.

_Shame you're stuck with me._

I follow Ruka down to where the trees begin to thin out. A line of Minus staves poke out of the trees pointing to a river. She jumps behind one, pulling me and Torunka with her. "Over there, that Minus staff in the tree," she says. "I'll distract the monkeys and draw them this way. Torunka, you flip the dial. Silvan, can you pull them down the river?"

"Sure," I reply casually.

Torunka nervously adjusts his wizard hat. "I'll do my best."

"Okay," she whispers. Then she jumps out. "Hey! Monkeys! Come get me!"

One of Zeman's monkey henchmen turns and points his Minus staff towards Ruka. Torunka shoots off across the grove, to a Minus staff protruding from one of the tree trunks near the river.

Bás circles over the rest of the monkey troop, inadvertently drawing their attention. "A spirit!" One of them calls. "Get it!"

Torunka turns the dial on the Minus staff, causing the monkey closest to us to fly into the air and drop his staff. I raise the river and sweep the monkeys down the current, towards a rolling stretch of rapids. Bás flies back around and lands on my shoulder. _How kind of you to rescue me, Silvan._

"Oh, be quiet, it was part of the plan," I grumble.

Ruka grabs the Minus staff off of the ground and goes running towards the river, where I see Regulus halfway across a log connecting this embankment to the one on the other side. Ruka jumps up onto the log and slowly approaches Regulus, the staff clenched in her hands. "Regulus? Please, listen to me! We really need you to help us!"

"Do not come any closer!" Regulus commands.

"R-Ruka!" Torunka shouts nervously, pulling himself up into the log behind her.

_Be prepared_, Bás tells me.

"For what?"

Ruka takes a step closer to the lion spirit. "We're the good guys, Regulus!"

With a great roar, it springs into the air with the intention of pouncing—Ruka raises her Minus staff and jabs it at the Minus needle around Regulus' leg. A great white light engulfs them, and suddenly the log explodes and sends shards of wood in every direction.

The three of them are thrown into the current, and Bás shoots off of my shoulder. _I advised you to be prepared! Utilize what you have been taught!_

"Fucking _hell_," I hiss, running along the bank. I jump onto the water, willing the liquid at my feet to freeze as I move and the river to speed me up. In the distance, I see Ruka, Torunka, and Regulus being forced towards a billowing waterfall. I push myself forward and brush the current to the side, driving the three of them onto the shore as I catch up and join them on the sand. "Is everyone all right?"

Bás touches down on the ground beside Ruka, examining her as she coughs up river water._ It has barely been an hour—you've excelled in your abilities._

"I thought we went over this," I tell him. "I'm no novice."

Ruka shoves herself up off of the ground and rolls her sleeves up, squeezing the water out of them. "T-Thanks, Silvan."

"No problem." Regulus begins to circle us again, but I notice that its foreleg is missing the Minus needle.

Torunka jumps up. "A-Are we still in danger?"

Regulus stops in front of us and sits. "I know that mark—you're a Signer. I have waited a very long time for you to come to this world."

I think we all let out a collective breath at that point, happy that Ruka's plan worked and that we don't have to run from a big possibly lethal cat anymore. "Are you the one who brought me here?"

"Yes—Ancient Fairy Dragon mentioned that you could save this world before she was imprisoned. I used all of my available power to fight Zeman's henchmen, and I cast a spell at the last moment to being you here." Regulus settles into the sandy embankment and examines me, which makes Bás twitch nervously on my shoulder. "Though I don't remember calling upon an Aeron..."

I exhale, which turns into a groan. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

_How long will you deny it?_ Bás asks.

"Until Morrigan herself strikes me with lightning and says 'Silvan Levine, I created you to screw with your friends' fates,'" I answer flatly.

_She would have gladly taken that challenge, if she were here, _he remarks.

"I do not mind," Regulus tells me. "This means we have fate on our side."

I wave my finger in a circle. "_Yippee_."

"Forgive me, friends, for acting so hostile. Zeman's Minus Curse clouded my mind and made me believe that you were enemies."

Torunka shifts in the sand. "I honestly thought we were going to be cat food back there."

Ruka shoots him a look. "It's great to finally meet you without having danger at our backs. We need your help."

"I am aware." Regulus rises. "Zeman has sealed Ancient Fairy Dragon into a crag. If we can infiltrate his castle and defeat him, the Minus Curse will lift and everything will return to normal."

"That's great!" Ruka exclaims. "How do we get to his castle?"

"We follow the river north. Climb onto my back." Torunka and Ruka don't object, but I shuffle awkwardly towards the water's edge.

"If it's up the river, I'll just travel that way."

"Very well. Follow me."

Regulus takes off running and I jump into the river, changing the course of the current to push me upstream.

Bás glides past me, not ruffling a feather. _What abilities have developed within you?_

"Abilities?" I huff.

_Indeed. What have you developed?_

"Sometimes my arm catches on fire and I can see the past," I grumble.

_Only the past? By this time I would have suspected you see the future as well. _

"Am I supposed to be able to do that?"

_Eventually. All Aeron see the past and future to know the best choices to make when steering people onto their chosen paths. _

"Yeah, well, all I see is the past, and all it does is make me sad about the choices people around me have made."

_But doesn't it help you adjust your own choices and help them to make others? Divination is a vital tool for all Aeron. _

"It doesn't seem so vital."

_You will see. In time, you will even be able to Kelt with your Signer companions. _

"Kelt?" I ask.

_Quite. Kelting is a powerful form of telepathic communication. The bond formed between an Aeron and their assigned beings can grow to be so strong, they will be able to communicate through thought._

"Is that why I can read minds?" I ask.

_Perhaps. Though the power of the Signers bars you from hearing their inner monologues. Your bonds with them should gradually grow tougher and allow you to know where they are or what could be happening with them._

I think of my pain split with Yusei—maybe that is possible? "This is all so weird..."

_Silvan, why will you not accept what you are?_

"Because," I complain. "I'm at a time in my life right now where I don't know anything about myself. I have these weird powers, I frequently light up, and I have so many mysteries to solve that it makes my head hurt. All I wanted was some simple answer as to why I'm like this, like my friends got their answer—how am I supposed to wrap my head around something even more unexplainable? Goddesses of fate, spirit guides, Aeron?"

_So it is not that you do not believe me—it is that you do not want to believe. _

"Pretty much. God, I wish there was another explanation for this."

_I do apologize that you are so displeased about your existence. I wish you could understand how vital you are to the world. As the fate of the human world rests on the Signers, their fates rest upon you. _

"Yeah, you've mentioned that. I still don't know how I feel about it; controlling my friends' fates. That's a lot of pressure to put on one girl."

_I am aware. That is why I had_ _to bring you here now, so that you could begin to know what is going on. _

I exhale. He's doing a wonderful job confusing me.

The river begins to climb up a hillside, and I see the sky growing dark. A thick beam of white light shoots up into the sky ahead of us, and lightning crackles in the impending clouds. "What's going on?"

_The Ape King is attempting to Minuzise everything else,_ Bás answers. _We must hurry._

"You have a really odd care for this," I remark.

_There are more places than just the Duel Monster Spirit World between the dimensions—however, if one realm collapses, the others will also be affected. _

The trees and grasses begin to recede into the ground, and it suddenly begins to get tougher to move the current. I jump up out of the water and onto the dead earth, where Regulus, Ruka, and Torunka have stopped to stare at the light erupting from what looks like a huge stone castle. Bás lands on my shoulder.

Then Torunka cries out, and I turn in time to see him shrink to the size of a 5-year-old. "T-This is not good! At this rate, I'll turn into a newborn!"

"Zeman's Minus Curse is growing stronger," Regulus says. "We must make haste."

We all continue up the river, towards the castle cut into the mountain. We stop where the river cuts off and a rock bridge leads to the entrance of the fortress. I see a pack of Zeman's monkeys gathered at the front gate.

"It's going to be interesting trying to get in there," I say.

"We will not get in without a plan," Regulus remarks.

"Then I think we only have one option," Ruka adds.

"You're on it with the plans today, Ruka," I tell her. "What are we doing?"

"I don't know if it's possible, Silvan, but could you make a cage?"

"Like for an animal?" I ask. I turn to Bás. "Is that one of my abilities?"

_The creation of materials requires a formal incantation, _Bás answers.

"Hey, that's right!" I exclaim. "My spell book!" I feel around in the pockets of my pants and the rest of my outfit until I finally find the book wedged into a thin pocket on the inside stitching of my tunic.

_Where did you get ahold of that?_

"A creepy psychic guy had it," I reply. "Why do you sound surprised?"

_It was quite a long time ago that our knowledge was stolen back from the human world on the account of humanity abusing it. I was not aware our texts still traversed your realm. _

"Well, they do. Got any advice on how to cast these?"

_The energy within you is enough to channel them. Will is the only thing that keeps the enchantments alive._

"Mmhm. Got it. _Ordaímse mo láimh, a bhrionnú dhéanamh ar an bpríosún iarainn_." My mark lights up. The bars of what looks like an iron cage suddenly form straight out of the ground. Torunka makes sort of this terrified squeaking noise and jumps back.

"Great," Ruka says. "Here's the plan. Regulus, we'll disguise ourselves and pretend to be spirits on Zeman's side, turning you in to him. We'll get Zeman to release Ancient Fairy Dragon from her crag and then get close enough to him to use Torunka's Minus staff on him and turn the Minus into Plus."

"What do you want me to do?" I say.

"I know!" Torunka pipes up. "Ruka, we can pretend to be wizards! Maybe I don't have any magic, but I think she does! She can make it look like we're actually casting spells!"

_Not bad_, Bás croons.

Regulus climbs into the cage. "I will trust your judgement, Ruka."

"Great!"

Torunka fiddles with his Minus staff. "Ruka, where do you suppose we get disguises?"

Bás nudges me with his round black head. _Cast a glamour on them._

"A glamour?"

_Quite. It is something of a temporary transformation spell that changes one's appearance._

"All right—how do I do that?"

_Repeat after me. Masc an fhírinne._

"_Masc an fhírinne_."

_Ó na súile unworthy._

"_Ó-Ó na súile unworthy._"

_Now direct your energies to whom you would like the glamour to fall on._

I envision Ruka and Torunka, driving all of my focus into seeing their appearances change. I open my eyes and all that's changed is their clothing, but it's good enough.

_Brilliant,_ Bás remarks. _Once you become skilled enough, you will be able to change even a person's face and body. _

"No offense," Torunka interrupts, "but this is somewhat of a weak glamour—how do we know Zeman won't see through it?"

"We don't," I say flatly, "but do we really have another choice?"

"Good point."

Ruka pulls the cloth of the robe that's materialized on her body over her head. Then she wraps a sash at her waist around the blade of Torunka's Minus staff. "Let's go. It's now or never."

"Lead on, Ruka," Regulus replies smoothly.

I cast the invisibility spell over myself and Bás, finding a different cast that will cause the cage to float slightly off of the ground so that I can push it along.

Ruka and Torunka lead us to the front gate of the stone enclosure. I feel Bás moving along my shoulder. _You will be leaving this place soon._

"Yeah, I know," I whisper.

_Will you ever choose to believe me?_

"Maybe? God, I don't know. What else do I have to believe?"

_It is a difficult thing to process, Silvan. I feel obligated to tell you that Morrigan does indeed consider you to be her finest creation._

I scoff under my breath, vaguely hearing Ruka chat with a monkey at the gate. "And why's that?"

_You are the first Half-Aeron to roam the Earth._

"Explain?"

_Because you were borne of a human, though your immortal soul was forged by her, you bear the heart of a human but the mind of an Aeron._

"You're being cryptic again."

_Aeron do not feel. Emotion is quite the fickle concept among them, as they are trained to know the way a human acts though they do not feel emotion the way a human can. You see, fate can be swayed by emotion, so those who toy with it were deprived of feeling. It is why willpower is the only rational thing to channel your abilities—emotion is raw and unpredictable. You are the only of your kind to live with human emotion, and it has been a great success. You continue to lead your assigned down the right path._

"_Assigned_. They're my friends, I already want what's best for them."

_Yes, I see. It seems that what was most feared has become one of the greatest skills. Because you feel for your companions, you are able to steer them correctly. Though Morrigan was not pleased of your lack of training, I can tell that you will do good in her name in the future. _

"_Awesome_," I say flatly. The rock doors scrape open, and I nudge the cage forward into the foyer of the fortress, trying not to breathe as we drift past the monkeys at the door.

The inside of the place is huge, dark, and frankly sort of depressing. Tablets are pressed along the walls with pictures of duel monsters on them. Bás nudges me._ They are captured duel spirits. _

"And he's using them as wall ornaments," I sigh. "_Fantastic_."

I continue to nudge the cage forward until Regulus flicks his tail, the telltale sign for me to stop. Three or four monkeys gather behind me, not aware of my presence but also not aware that they could bump into me if they got any closer. I hear Ruka's voice. "Great Monkey King Zeman, it is an honor to meet you!"

A deep, almost growling voice answers, "Are you the Traveling Magician?"

_Clever. _

I flick Bás' wing, and he shuts up.

"Yes, and here is my assistant!"

There's a silence, until Zeman speaks again. "However were you able to capture the powerful Regulus?"

I see Ruka wave the concealed Minus staff around. The monkeys lean a little closer, curious as to what the staff could be. "O, power to control all spirits, come to rest in my hand! Awaken!"

_This is quite funny,_ Bás laughs.

Regulus totters to his feet. Then he rips a rolling growl before roaring, which sends the monkeys behind me running off to where they could hide.

"Be quelled!"

Regulus obediently lays back down.

"You control him quite easily," Zeman pries.

"Y-Yes!" Torunka exclaims. "A Magician's spells can control any violent spirit!"

"Utterly dubious," Zeman accuses flatly.

"Do you not believe in my magic?" Ruka declares. I'm not sure what she wants me to do, but I go for bursts of elemental magic to help pretend that he's upset her. Small drops of water pop at random places in the room, and the pedestals of fire beside Zeman's throne begin to blaze high and white hot. Thunder outside shakes the castle. "Maybe I should sic Regulus on your pitiful soldiers!"

"No, no, that will not be necessary." I settle down with the fire and water. "Retrieving Regulus is good enough. He shall now be Minumized."

As if on cue, a pack of monkeys comes from almost nowhere and surrounds us.

"Wait," Ruka commands.

"What is it?"

"If you insist on casting the Minus Curse so soon, the spell I spent the trouble casting on Regulus will lift—he'll go berserk."

"Then what do you suppose I do?"

"If I may be so blunt, might one assume that you don't know how to Minusize Regulus?" Ruka asks.

"Whatever do you mean?" Zeman returns.

"Are you familiar with the fact that Regulus is the servant of the Ancient Fairy Dragon?"

"Of course," Zeman scoffs. "Sealing her into her crag is all well and good, but I have not been able to completely Minusize her."

"It's because the only way to successfully Minusize them both is to cast the curse while simultaneously unsealing Ancient Fairy Dragon," Ruka tells him.

_This girl is very intelligent,_ Bás muses.

"You should see the rest of them," I say under my breath.

There's a moment of odd silence, until Zeman speaks again. "Very well. I will trust what you say."

"Ruka's done it," I mumble.

_The Minus energy is growing less,_ Bás answers.

It's very faint, but he's right. I can feel the depressing air in the room lessening.

"Come forth to me, Ancient Fairy Dragon!" Zeman commands.

A yellow light spills from a pit beyond the cage—I watch it filter out and fill the room.

"Cursed Needle—release Ancient Fairy Dragon!" I see a great mass of rock rise over us, and a trace of what look like dragon bones. The trace begins to gain color in vibrant blues and various other bright rainbow colors. "Bring Regulus forward!"

The monkeys behind me gather at the front of the cage, opening it. Ruka waves her Minus staff around. "O, power to control all spirits, come to rest in my hand! Regulus, move forward!"

Regulus obediently walks forward towards the crag, while I see Ruka hand Torunka the Minus staff.

_Oh dear, _Bás mumbles.

"What?" I ask.

The weight of the Minus staff must've offset Torunka, because he falls right into Ruka and they both spill into the stones. Torunka reaches for the Minus staff to pick it back up, but the cloth covering catches on the stones and the glamour shimmers slightly before fading away and taking the rest of Ruka's disguise with it.

"He's got a Minus staff!" A monkey shouts. "And that's the girl from the town!"

"We've been tricked!" Another one shouts.

"Seize them!" Zeman growls.

"Oh boy," I say. I let the casts go, my body and Bás' bursting back into the viewable world as the cage clatters to the ground and Regulus shoots back to protect Ruka and Torunka. The moisture in the air forms into a sheet of ice between us and the monkeys, which they stab at with their Minus staves.

As I come around, I finally see Zeman, a large ape spirit with tufts of violet fur and the robes I'd expect a Mayan king to wear. He points his scepter to the crag, where Ancient Fairy Dragon fades back into the rock.

"Dang, I've goofed! What do we do now?" Torunka exclaims.

"Give me the Minus staff," Regulus says.

"Do you have a plan?" Ruka asks.

"I'm going to carry yours through," Regulus answers. Torunka passes over the staff and I disseminate the barrier in front of us—Regulus dives forward to Zeman, the Minus staff in its jaws making contact with Zeman's scepter. A pulsing white light emits from Regulus' staff, opposite of a dark purple glow coming off of Zeman's.

"It's not working!" Torunka complains.

_But it will,_ Bás returns, though he knows no one can hear him but me.

Regulus circles back around, tail swishing, and pounces again. This time, a huge white light flashes, making all of the monkeys burst and a fire race towards us.

"What do I do, Bás?" I say shakily.

_I cannot answer that,_ he says, sounding concerned. _Fire is not your element._

Maybe it isn't my element, but I have controlled it before. My desperation turns into determination, and I think about extreme anger until I feel extremely angry and I can force the fire to extinguish. The flames settle down, and I hear Zeman shout above the light. "Don't think this is over! Once I'm gone, the Minus Curse will be transferred to Demak!"

Then he shatters, like a duel monster would after being defeated. The white light fills the room, and I feel Ruka, Torunka, and Bás grabbing onto me as a gale-force wind blows through the room.

_How did you do that?_ Bás asks in the back of my mind.

"Emotion isn't that useless," I manage.

The light suddenly begins to fade. The room is dark and completely trashed, devoid of monkeys and any dark energy I could've sensed.

I'm kneeling on the floor, protecting Ruka with my arms, and Bás is squished up against my face and throat. We all sort of shift, looking around. The first thing I notice is an elder man with a tall staff standing off to the side. Ruka stands. "T-Torunka?"

He sort of laughs, a raspy sound like the scraping of gravel. "As it would seem."

"I-I didn't know you were this... Old," Ruka stutters.

Torunka laughs again.

I see Regulus come down from the half-destroyed rock throne that used to be Zeman's. "It seems Zeman has been obliterated."

"Yeah, it looks like. I'm glad you're all right," Ruka says quickly. "But where is Ancient Fairy Dragon?"

"The tablets are still here," I muse, looking at the walls.

"Oh no," Ruka groans. "Zeman said that the curse was transferred to Demak! It hasn't totally been lifted!"

Suddenly, the ground begins to shift under us. My mark spits off a shower of sparks. A familiar glyph of a monkey carves itself onto the ceiling.

Purple orbs begin to fly out of the tablets and into the geoglyph. Bás flaps his wings and gathers himself closer to me. _This is not good_.

"An Immortal is being summoned," I realize.

"And Demak is using the souls of the spirits," Ruka adds sadly. Then she sort of blinks, like she's coming out of a trance. "_Rua_. Rua! He's in trouble! Silvan, we have to go back!"

A light engulfs us suddenly, and we begin to fly up towards the geoglyph.

"We're being sucked in," Torunka says quickly.

"At this rate, the spirit world will be eternally confined in darkness!" Regulus exclaims.

"You're our last hope," Torunka tells Ruka. "I'll use the last of my power to send you back to your world."

Bás squawks. _I must leave to my realm as well. This is where we part ways, Silvan._

"Wait—I still have a lot of questions to ask you..."

_You will figure them out on your own. I have told you what you must be aware of. From here on, fate is in your hands._

"But how will I know which way to bend it?"

_You will know. Do not sell yourself short_.

Bás launches himself off of my shoulder and suddenly vanishes in a flash of green light before the geoglyph can take him, and Ruka grabs my hand.

"Good luck!" Torunka shouts. A pocket of light envelops me and Ruka, and we're suddenly sent spiraling back into the tunnel I fell into when I first got here. I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, confusion and fear hitting me from all sides.

Maybe I'm not what I thought I was, but if that's true, what am I supposed to be?

I come down feet first onto hard, hot ground, Ruka holding onto my arm like she'd fall into oblivion if she didn't. At our feet is the battered, broken form of Rua, and in front of us stand Demak and the Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.

_Fight, clever girl,_ Bás' voice says into my ear.

_Maybe I will_, I reply.

* * *

**Yeah so answers are cool. For the most part, all of the information let on by Bás is true. Elemental energy, Kelting, etc. etc. etc. Backstory on Silvan's actual race as a Half-Aeron won't really be given until the WRGP Arc, but at least she gets the basics.**

**We're getting more faves and I got a couple more reviews last week—awesome! You guys really make me want to write more and more and more. **

**I really hope all the info in this chapter wasn't too quickly delivered. Irritating giant crows say what they want.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	16. Armor

**Welcome to Chapter 16! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"What an interesting turn of events," I hear Demak say. I turn to him while Ruka tries to shake Rua out of it.

"_Interesting_ doesn't even begin to cover it," I scoff. My mark blazes with fire—Ruka's is alight next to mine.

"Help me, Silvan," Ruka says. I kneel and help to guide Rua to his feet. He leans on me for support, while Ruka slips the duel disk off of his arm. Then she meets me eyes. "Will you take care of him?"

"I'm well practiced in the art of taking care of brothers," I tell her.

"Ruka," Rua murmurs. "You came back..."

"I did, Rua. You've been fighting too hard, and you're hurt."

"I... I wanted to beat that guy before you got back," Rua answers weakly. "It turns out I'm not really cut out to play the hero..."

"That's not true, Rua," Ruka replies quickly, her voice shaking. "You're the best a hero could get!" She embraces him after that, and I hear her trying not to cry.

"Not so hard," Rua complains. "You're squishing the tears out of me."

I keep a hand on Rua and Demak begins to speak again.

"So you're all here. You've arrived just in time to fall to Cusillu, young Signer."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," I grumble under my breath.

"You've been great help, Silvan," Ruka tells me, "but now what I really need you to do is help Rua. We're kind of a set package, so maybe you could find it in your heart to bend his fate a little."

"I'll do my best."

"Demak!" Ruka yells, sounding almost distressed. "You were the one controlling Zeman and stealing the souls of all of those spirits! I'm not going to forgive you for that, and I'm definitely not going to forgive you for hurting my brother!"

"Ruka?" Rua asks softly. "I said I'd be the one to protect you... I should finish this..."

"No, Rua—you fought hard for me, and now I'm going to fight hard for you. Don't worry. Silvan is going to take care of you while I teach this jerk a lesson." She passes his body to me, and I back away from the battlefield to give Ruka some space.

"Hey, Rua," I say lightly. "You've been quite the knight in shining armor today. Every knight needs to rest eventually, you know. I'm going to cast a spell on you to help your wounds heal—all right?"

He scrunches his nose. "Is it going to hurt? I think I've had enough pain for today..."

I laugh gently. "No, don't worry. You're done with being hurt." I take my spell book from my back pocket, where it belongs, and set it on the ground as I raise a hand over Rua. "_Na wounds cneasaigh._"

A green light spreads over Rua, all of his bumps and scrapes fading away.

"That was nice," he says softly.

"Don't move a lot," I tell him. "Your body still has to heal some more, and you're probably tired from your duel. Close your eyes and rest—Ruka and I won't let you get hurt anymore."

He obediently lets his eyes fall shut, and I turn my attention to Ruka's duel.

"Allow me to show you my respect, young Signer, as I bring a very special spirit to the field." Demak plays a card. "I activate Cursed Prison—this will special summon one synchro monster to my field. Perhaps you recognize her?"

I can barely see the card from here, but Ruka gapes in astonishment.

Demak lays a card out on his duel disk. "Appear, my prisoner, Ancient Fairy Dragon!" Demak simultaneously ends his turn as a cage erects itself onto the field, the multicolored form of Ancient Fairy Dragon bent inside of it. "How does it feel, young Signer, to face the very being bound to you by fate as an enemy!"

"I wouldn't say by fate. I don't think any friend of mine would put me in a position like this."

"Fate, your _friend_? Don't make me laugh. Fate is a cruel thing that no one can predict or control."

"Maybe it'll surprise me."

I feel myself smile.

Ruka begins her turn, a new passion straightening her posture. "I'll begin by activating Power Tool Dragon's special effect, adding a random equip spell from my deck to my hand! Now, I can equip it with Central Shield! If any other monster besides Power Tool Dragon is attacked, I'll take no damage. This card also allows me to refrain from taking direct damage." She puts two cards into the duel disk and ends her turn.

Demak draws. "I'll begin by attacking Power Tool Dragon with Cusillu!" The Immortal raises its huge yellow fist, ready to smack down the dragon.

"I trigger my face down, Limiter Removal! This doubles the attack of Power Tool Dragon until the end phase!"

Cusillu must have lower attack points than Power Tool Dragon—Demak fiddles with a card. "I activate Cusillu's special effect—I can tribute Ancient Fairy Dragon to prevent his destruction, as well as halve your life points!"

"I'll activate my other face down, Respect Synchron!" Ruka points almost menacingly at Demak. "This allows me to summon one monster from your Graveyard to my side of the field! I knew you'd sacrifice her again, but thanks to your predictability, I get to bring back a very dear friend of mine! Come join me, Ancient Fairy Dragon!"

"Whoa," I hear myself say. The dragon bursts forward, like it's breaking free of chains, and surfaces beside Ruka.

"Ruka, I thank you from the bottom of my heart," a gentle female voice says. "You have kept the promise you made so long ago."

Ruka gives a smile in return, then lapses back into her duel. "Now, I discard Central Shield in order to prevent Power Tool Dragon from being destroyed."

"Stupendous," Demak muses. "Show me a duel elected by the gods, little Signer!"

"If you insist!" Ruka draws a card. "I activate the effect of Ancient Fairy Dragon! I can destroy any Field spell currently in play—I guess I'll just have to choose Cursed Forest!"

The scenery around the duel of a dark forest fades in a flash of light. Demak doesn't look happy.

"With Closed Forest destroyed, your Immortal's ATK will return to normal and I'll be allowed to attack it! Then, I activate Power Tool Dragon's special effect to add an equip spell to my hand! I can now equip Power Tool Dragon with Rocket Plider and Ancient Fairy Dragon with Pain to Power!"

I feel the dark energy in the air increasing, pulsating like a being that's trying to combat Ruka's light.

"Now, Power Tool Dragon can't be destroyed by battle! Even more, if it attacks, the monster it attacks will lose ATK equal to Power Tool Dragon's until the End Phase! Also, Pain to Power allows me to increase Ancient Fairy Dragon's attack points every time I take battle damage!"

I see what she's doing, and even though I know he's attempting to rest, Rua hears and shifts in his makeshift sleep.

"Power Tool Dragon, attack Cusillu!"

Power Tool Dragon glides towards Cusillu, evading its massive fingers, and collides right with its chest. The explosion carves a hole in the Immortal, taking down its attack points by at least 2000. Power Tool Dragon isn't destroyed because of Rocket Plider, and so it comes flying back to Ruka's side.

"Do you have a death wish, young Signer?" Demak demands. "It seems you have chosen to receive the punishment of the gods!"

Ruka doesn't answer; she just keeps with her strategy. "Because of Rocker Plider, Cusillu's attack points have now fallen! And, since Ancient Fairy Dragon is equipped with Pain to Power, she gains attack from the life points I just lost from my attack!"

"Go, Ruka," Rua says weakly.

"Turn your pain to power, Ancient Fairy Dragon! Attack Earthbound Immortal Cusillu!"

The dragon lets out an ear-splitting roar, and a bright seven segment rainbow bursts out of its body. I have to cover my eyes so I won't go blind.

When the light finally fades, the monkey geoglyph is gone, as well as Cusillu. Demak is crouched in the dirt, his hood thrown back and his eyes a bottomless black. "It isn't possible... It isn't possible..." He begins to make his way towards Ruka, menacingly reaching out as if to grab her. I lift Rua onto my back and cross to Ruka, setting her brother down beside her and standing between the two of them and Demak.

"Fate has _not_ smiled on you," I say harshly.

Then he collapses into a pile of thick dust before blowing away on a sudden wind.

Trudge suddenly runs up to us, followed closely by Yusei. "Thank God guys are all right."

"You both did a great job," Yusei adds. He grabs Rua's hand and helps him onto his feet; Ruka holds onto his arm gently, like a way for him to balance.

The clouds above us begin to gradually clear from the Shadow Duel, and the faint light on the horizon brings a picture of Ancient Fairy Dragon and Regulus onto the gravel before us.

"Is the, uh... Solid vision acting up or something?" Trudge asks nervously.

Ancient Fairy Dragon stares at him. "I can assure you—we are real."

After making a sort of squeaky, incredulous noise, Trudge actually faints onto the tough ground.

"Ruka, we owe you great thanks for returning the Spirit World to its natural state."

"I'm so happy everything is back to normal," Ruka replies. "I really couldn't have done anything without my brother and my friends, though."

"Of course. My gratitude is yours." The dragon shifts her eyes to me. "The fate of this girl and her brother is in your hands, Aeron. I trust you will carry it?"

I take a breath. "You can definitely count on me."

With a nod, she and Regulus suddenly fade away, becoming cards in Ruka's outstretched hands.

Yusei glances at me, questions surfacing in his eyes. I think of what Bás told me about Kelting and decide to make an attempt—I reach into his direction, my mind lingering around the silence of his_. I'll tell you later. _

His eyes narrow in confusion, and he opens and closes his mouth in what I think is utter speechlessness.

_I have a lot of explaining to do,_ I add, and he begins to nod like a bobble head.

Ruka plays with the cards in her hand and takes a few steps towards a tall tower in front of us. She enters its open doors and stays there for a moment, when the earth starts to shake. She runs out, holding the cards for Regulus and Ancient Fairy Dragon, as the tower sinks into the earth without leaving a trace that it was ever there to begin with.

Trudge shifts back into the world of the awake, his thoughts hazy and assuming that he's been hallucinating.

"That's one tower down," Ruka says out loud. "We still have the other three..."

"It's just a matter of time," I say. "For now, your battle is over."

"It's my turn now," Yusei chimes. "Silvan, I don't think I want to wait for an explanation. What the hell did you just do?"

God, what am I supposed to tell him? Yeah, it's called Kelting which means I can talk into your head at random moments. Oh, by the way, I'm not actually human I'm this thing that can control your destiny so if I do something wrong I can accidentally screw you all over. "Well, uh... Ruka and I sort of went to the Duel Monster Spirit World and I met a spirit there that told me a lot of things... Too many things to explain right now, actually."

"You can explain things after we get to the eastern tower," Trudge grumbles, pulling himself off of the ground. "Thanks for disappearing the way you did—your duel runner wasn't stopping and I had to pull over so it wouldn't crash."

"Thanks," I mumble. We move back to Trudge's car and my duel runner propped up next to Yusei's. _Try talking back, _I suggest.

He develops an almost overly focused expression, like he's struggling to speak back.

_Don't try so hard. I bet if you just thought something, I could hear it. _

_Easier said than done..._

_Hey, I heard you that time!_

_Really? Can you please explain how we're doing this?_

I climb onto my duel runner and twist my hair up against my head, slipping my helmet on over it. _When I got to the spirit world, I came across the crow that contacted me in my vision. _

_So, it was a spirit? _

_Specifically, a spirit guide. My spirit guide. His name was Bás, and he spilled the story to me about my mark and my abilities and all the other things I've been wondering about._

_Really? _He drives after Trudge and I pull up next to him. I can almost sense him worrying about our connection breaking.

_The things he told me were... Sort of eye-opening. First and foremost, I'm not technically a human being._

He's silent.

_My mark comes from this Celtic goddess of fate, named Morrigan. She frequently creates these beings that Bás called 'her children' that are assigned to humans or other beings at their creation. They're supposed to determine the fate of whoever they've been assigned to. According to Bás, my sole reason for creation is to determine and carve the fate of the Signers. The Crimson Dragon specifically requested someone to sway your fates if needed, and that person just so happens to be me._

When he answers, it's quiet and his words echo around in the hollow space of my mind._ If you're not human, what are you?_

_We're called Aeron. Well, half-Aeron, technically._

_Half?_

_Bás told me that I was sort of a last-minute creation. Someone screwed around with the way things were supposed to be, and so Morrigan sort of had to throw me together. The quickest way she could do it was to use a human to put me on the planet. So, I'm the only half-Aeron in existence with the heart of a human and the mind of an Aeron._

_What does that mean?_

_Aeron don't really have emotions. The human side of me gives me feeling, while the rest of me is Aeron._

_...I see why you said it was 'eye-opening.' What about this mind thing?_

_It's called Kelting. That and my ability to mind read are supposed to be because of my bonds to the four of you. I'm not sure if it'll work on the others, but I had to try it on you because I've already felt a pain share with you. Bás said that bonds get stronger over time, and I'll be able to do things like that once they're strong enough._

_All right... What else did he tell you?_

We come up onto a broken stretch of highway, where I suddenly have to focus on avoiding potholes and scattered debris before I answer again. _Eventually, I'll be able to see the future. It's supposed to be a vital tool for being an Aeron so that you can see where to go and where you've been. _

_Didn't Goodwin say that our fates are sort of set in stone?_

_Fate is weird. There's already a way things are supposed to go, but sometimes things get in the way and people put up obstacles to try and change their fates, but Aeron have to keep everything on the right path so that everything is balanced. The reason I exist the way I do now is because someone messed up fate and some Aeron wasn't there to fix it._

_If that's the case, I think I'm happy they screwed everything up. Otherwise, we might not have been friends._

_Who knows? A lot of things could've been different._ Some part of me is overzealously glad that he hasn't reacted beyond asking questions. I think there's a piece of me that's afraid my friends will treat me differently if they know about what I'm supposed to be.

_What else is there?_

_My water ability—Draíocht—is another thing. Morrigan picks out an element for all of us to naturally be attracted to. Mine is water. _

_Why can you do things with the other ones?_

_Bás mentioned that, if you're super powerful, you can control the elements besides the one you're attracted to. _

_What I'm hearing is I should make an attempt not to upset you._ There's somewhat of an amused tone to the sentence. I'm so glad his opinion of me hasn't changed.

_Yeah, probably. Do you think I should tell the others?_

_Well, I'd think they have a right to know. _

_I'm not sure how they'll react._

_The mind-reading fiasco all over again, huh?_

He's referring to when we were kids and I told him that I could read his mind, but I didn't tell anyone else because I was scared they'd see it as a breach of privacy. _Yeah, kinda._

_Maybe it's time to come clean about that stuff. I'll back you up if anyone gets angry._

_Have I ever mentioned how much I value you as a friend and a person in general?_

_You could stand to mention it more._

Suddenly, Trudge's car skids to a stop and Yusei and I have to slam on the breaks so we don't cause a crash. My stomach turns over when I see a geoglyph suspended in the sky a long ways away—a geoglyph of a killer whale.

"That's the mark Kiryu was trying to imbue me with," I say weakly.

"They must've put it on someone else," Yusei answers, putting his hand gently on my shoulder. "I wonder who."

"I can tell you one thing—they're not dueling a Signer."

"Obviously not. Our marks aren't glowing."

Trudge turns around in the driver's seat. "What do you guys wanna do?"

"I think we need to see who's dueling," I say. "They need to be warned about what they're getting themselves into."

"We'll go together," Yusei tells me. He turns to Trudge and the twins. "Maybe you three should stay behind. It could get pretty dangerous."

"Aw, no way," Rua complains.

"We'll be fine," Ruka insists. "My mark will keep us from being sacrificed."

Yusei exchanges a look with me. I know he won't be happy putting them in more danger, but I'm not sure we could stop them from coming.

"You can follow behind if you'd like," I say. "But be careful and don't do anything rash."

Ruka gives me a firm nod and Yusei seems to agree. He motions me forward and we ride in single file towards the flames of the geoglyph. Trudge's car follows behind us and then splits off as we ramp off of the road and into the geoglyph.

I shift nervously alongside Yusei's duel runner. _Who would they give that mark to?_

He slows a little to match my speed._ I don't know. I'm just glad you're off the table._

We continue down this stretch of the geoglyph, my eyes looking along the walls of flame that run on all sides of us. Yusei suddenly points off to our right. _There._

I see two duel runners racing along a separate portion of broken track—I recognize one all too well, the rider and his Blackbird refusing to give.

_Crow. But who's the Dark Signer?_

A troublesome aura wafts off of Yusei. _His name's Bommer. I dueled him in the Fortune Cup—he's got this grudge against Goodwin for something that happened to his village. _

_There's his trigger. _I accelerate a little. "Crow!" I call.

I see him turn his head, followed by Bommer.

"Bommer, since when are you a Dark Signer?" Yusei exclaims.

"I've been reborn to seek vengeance on Goodwin," he returns. "As Goodwin's pawn, you're my enemy, Yusei Fudo!"

"_Freakin_'," I grumble. "You guys need to stop this duel! It's dangerous!"

"There's no way I'm stopping, Sil," Crow shouts. "The Dark Signers took the kids I was watching—I'm not letting that go unsung!"

"Crow, Silvan is right," Yusei attempts. "Both you and Bommer have suffered similarly! You should be coming to an understanding, not fighting!"

"Where do you want me to vent, then?" Crow retorts.

"Revenge just breeds more revenge," Yusei tells him. "You have to stop!"

"Look, just please understand that I'm not stopping this! I know what I'm doing—you can watch if you need to, but don't try to change my mind!"

"I think watching is all we can do," I say. "Maybe I could stick a hand in if something goes wrong... But there's no way we're getting him out of this."

Yusei likes the idea much less than I do, and that's saying something—we continue along the road as Crow resumes his duel with Bommer. I watch the walls of flames, ready to step in if more shit goes down.

"I summon Spell Reactor • RE!" Bommer tosses the card down. "Next, I activate the special effect of Summon Reactor • SK! I can send all three Reactors on my field to the Grave in order to summon Flying Fortress SKY FIRE!"

Yusei's voice rings out in my mind. _That card gave me a lot of trouble during the Fortune Cup. _

_Let's hope Crow can hold up against it._

"I activate SKY FIRE's special effect! I can send one tuner monster in my hand to the Graveyard to destroy one on the field—I'll destroy your Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield!"

Crow's tuner shatters into a thousand tiny yellow pieces. I watch him brace for an attack.

"SKY FIRE, attack and destroy Blackwing - Bora the Spear!"

"I activate Mistral the Silver Shield's special effect from the Grave!" Crow declares. "This'll reduce the battle damage I take this turn to 0!"

_Good old Crow, saving himself just barely. _

Yusei doesn't respond, and I know he's still very concerned.

Bommer ends his turn, so Crow draws for his. "I summon Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor!"

"Wait just a moment! That activates the secondary effect of Flying Fortress SKY FIRE! Any monster you summon will be destroyed, and you take 800 points of damage!"

Crow braces himself as he takes the damage, but then raises his head high to counter. "That means I can activate Vayu's effect! By removing it and another monster from my Graveyard, I can bring to the field Blackwing Armor Master!"

Some part of me lets out a breath. Armor Master is one of his aces, so I expect that he'll have something to pull. Crow always does.

"Due to the effect of Blackwing - Armor Master, I get to bring another Blackwing monster to the field! Come on out, Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind!"

"Neither of your monsters can hold a candle to SKY FIRE," Bommer scoffs.

"We'll see about that! Armor Master, attack Flying Fortress SKY FIRE!"

_I recognize that move. He's using it to take down SKY FIRE._

I turn to glance at Yusei, who's taking periodic double takes at the road below us. _How? Armor Master has less ATK._

_Watch. You'll see._

I direct my attention back down to the road below. It doesn't look like Armor Master has been destroyed.

"Due to its special effect, my monster isn't destroyed, nor do I take damage!" Crow calls.

"Then what was the point of that?" Bommer retorts.

"Direct your attention to the Wedge Counter I left in your monster, Bommer! By removing it, I can reduce SKY FIRE's ATK to 0 until the End Phase! Gale the Whirlwind, put down Bommer's dark arsenal!"

Gale crashes full-force into SKY FIRE, sending it spiraling into Bommer before it explodes. Yusei and I begin to pass under a bridge as Bommer goes spinning into one of the supports. A sudden spike of fear somewhere inside of me causes the ground to move us forward, preventing us from getting crushed.

Crow directs his attention to us. "I think I've held out pretty well for a non-Signer, don't you think?"

"I could agree, but I don't think you're getting out of this that easily," Yusei remarks.

"Watch out!" I call. Bommer comes zooming out of the wrecked bridge, barely a scratch on him.

"Try and catch up, Bommer!" Crow boasts. "I'll set one card face down and end my turn!"

Bommer speeds up, overtaking me and Yusei. "Or maybe I'll just have to drag you back here! When I have no monsters on my field, I can special summon Dark Tuner Doom Submarine from my hand, deck, or Grave!"

_Uh oh._ Yusei pulls in a little closer to me.

_What?_

_That's a Dark Tuner—he's not far from summoning an Immortal. _

I groan inwardly. Bommer plays another card. "Now, I summon Darksea Rescue! Revel in fear as I perform a Dark Synchro summon! When the shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back and reveals a world without light! Come forth, Dark Flattop!"

My mark pulsates, but it doesn't glow. A huge battleship, probably bigger than one of my biggest machines, descends onto the field out of a sudden burst of dark clouds.

Crow actually laughs. I wonder how he manages. "Just because that thing is bigger doesn't mean it's better!"

"Unfortunately for you, no monsters like this exist in your deck," Bommer remarks. "Due to the effect of Darksea Rescue in my Graveyard, I can draw two cards! Secondly, due to Dark Flattop's ability, I can summon back to the field Flying Fortress SKY FIRE!"

As the monster returns to the field, I hear Yusei's remark in the back of my mind_. If Crow doesn't take down Dark Flattop, he'll never get rid of SKY FIRE..._

_Let's hope he has a few more tricks up his sleeve._

"I'll activate Flying Fortress SKY FIRE's special ability! By sending a spell or trap in my hand to the Grave, I can destroy your Blackwing Armor Master!"

I brace myself for the impact of the attacks that'll come next, even though Crow will be the one taking damage.

"Flying Fortress SKY FIRE, destroy Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind!"

The mechanical giant destroys the little bird, and my heart skips to almost a stop when the impact of the attack knocks Crow off of his duel runner altogether.

_This isn't good. Oh God, this isn't good._

_Calm down. He'll be all right. _Yusei is the master of keeping a straight face in times of trouble, but I know he's as worried as I am.

"This match is over!" Bommer calls. "You couldn't possibly continue dueling in this condition!"

Yusei and I simultaneously move to get close to Crow and help him, but he holds up a hand. "Both of you, stay back! This isn't over yet!"

I admire his determination, and I envy his strength, but I can feel a shocking pain vibrating out of his body. I think two or three of his ribs have snapped.

"I'm not going to surrender until I beat you, Bommer! If I give up now, the kids I took care of will never find peace!" He pulls the Blackbird off of the ground, half using it as a support, and manages to start it back up again. "I'm not ready to give up, and neither is my duel runner!"

Yusei and I watch as Crow loads himself back onto the Blackbird and shoots off in pursuit of Bommer—there's pain plain on his face, but he's ignoring it.

"If you intend to vent out your anger over losing your children, then we share the same wishes," Bommer laments. "I remember the days I spent in my village—it reminds me a lot of Satellite. I learned everything I know thanks to Duel Monsters, and tried to pass everything down to my siblings and the children until the devastation that destroyed my village took away my siblings." He throws a card face down, and I assume his turn is done.

I watch Crow draw a card, and then he passes on his turn.

I bite my lip. _I think he's out of ideas. _

_Let's hope not._

"It does appear you've run out of options!" Bommer shouts.

"We'll see about that. I have two face downs, and one of them is going to take down both of your monsters."

"My victory won't falter," Bommer scoffs. "By discarding a spell or trap in my hand, I can activate SKY FIRE's special ability and destroy a card on your field! I'll choose your leftmost face down."

As soon as it's gone, Crow laughs. "Wrong choice! If you attack me now, you'll be done for!"

"You're doing nothing more than bluffing, desperate boy."

"Try me."

Bommer ignores him. "Flying Fortress SKY FIRE, attack him directly!"

Crow flips his face down. "I trigger my face down, Blackwing - Backlash!"

_Oh jeez. That could've been bad._

_I told you not to worry. _

"When there are five or more Blackwings in my Graveyard and I'm in danger of a direct attack, this card will destroy all monsters on my opponent's side of the field!"

Bommer watches, speechless, while his field clears.

"Gee, Bommer, how does it feel to have your biggest, baddest monsters taken down by one card?"

Bommer chuckles. "How do you know they were my baddest? Due to the effect of Darksea Float in my Graveyard, I'm allowed to draw one card! I activate Contaminated Earth, in which, during the turn two or more of my monsters with a level of 5 or higher are destroyed, I can summon one Earthbound Immortal!"

I watch the walls of fire flicker. _Can I worry now?_

_You're not making this better, Silvan. _

A thing that looks like a cocoon suddenly forms in the sky, balls of violet light rushing into it. My mark sends off flames, but it doesn't spit a dome of light over me like it has before. The shape of a violet whale forms in the sky.

"Rise, Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua!"

"Crow," Yusei warns, "be careful!"

Crow acknowledges him and draws a card, now that it's his turn. "I summon Blackwing - Fane the Steel Chain!"

"500 ATK? That monster won't stand up to my Immortal!" Bommer shouts.

"Well, it's not attacking your Immortal!" Crow retorts. "Due to Fane's special effect, I can skip right past your Immortal and attack you directly! Not only that, the battle position of Chacu Challhua will change and you won't be able to change it back!"

Fane shoots past the huge whale monster and slashes at Bommer, making his life points plummet and his Earthbound Immortal unable to attack.

Yusei and I swing a turn, following Crow and Bommer. _That was a good move._

_He's holding up well._

I watch Crow place a card face down and end his turn.

"I activate the effect of Chacu Challhua," Bommer says. "During a turn it doesn't attack, it can inflict half of its DEF on my opponent!"

An explosion breaks up the ground around Crow, and he almost loses control of his duel runner again. Fear building up in my chest, I shift the ground below to keep him upright.

"Next, I summon Darksea Rescue, and I activate the continuous trap, Basara! Once per turn, I can release a monster on my field and destroy another monster with a level higher than the one I released! In addition to that, the controller of the monster destroyed receives 800 points in damage! Goodbye, Fane the Steel Chain!"

I think that, if Crow takes that damage, he'll be a goner. He flips over a card before I can Kelt anything to Yusei. "I activate Guard Mines! When an effect that would destroy one of my monsters is activated, this card negates that attack and deals my opponent 500 points in damage!"

I sense a good vibe from both Yusei and Crow as Bommer ends his turn. Hopefully things will turn in Crow's favor.

He draws a card and seems pleased with it. "First, I'll set a face down—then, I summon Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North!"

A white bird appears out of a circle of pale blue light—it's a monster I know quite well, including the effect that I'm sure Crow is about to utilize to win the duel.

"I'll activate Blizzard's special effect—when I successfully summon it, I can special summon a Level 4 or below Blackwing from my Graveyard! Come on out, Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame!"

_Silverwind_, I Kelt.

_Yeah. _

"Now, I'll tune Shura the Blue Flame with Fane the Steel Chain and Blizzard the Far North in order to synchro summon Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant!"

"Is this your big play?" Bommer laments. "I should warn you that Chacu Challhua has an effect that skips my opponent's Battle Phase when it rests in Defense mode."

"Yeah? Well, Silverwind has an effect, too, and it probably won't be one you like! Once per turn, in exchange for not battling, I can destroy up to two monsters on my opponent's field with a DEF lower than Silverwind's ATK!"

Crow may not be able to defeat Bommer's Immortal via battle, but he can do it via effects. Crow's always been one to utilize his effects, and it's something I respect him for. Most of his cards have really simple effects that, when chained together the way only he knows how, can do something better than fantastic.

Silverwind glides close to Challhua, about to take it out, and I suddenly feel a vehement pulsing—like my brain wants to explode out of my skull. Pictures rush in front of me, but it's not a vision. I see a couple little kids, maybe Rua and Ruka's age, crying out for help. They're being hurt—I think they're spirits within Bommer's Immortal.

I think Crow and Yusei see them, too, because I'm not the only one hesitating with words and actions.

"If you're not going to attack, I'll go on with my turn!" Bommer remarks.

"H-Haven't you seen faces on your Immortal?" Crow asks in confusion.

"All I see is victory."

"Why don't you take a look at Chacu Challhua?" Yusei calls.

Bommer turns his eyes towards the great whale, while realization and horror carve their way onto his face. "No... My people... My village!"

I realize that the people inside are Bommer's family members, the villagers he mentioned before. An icy fist closes around my heart.

"The souls of the people in your village must've been used to summon your Immortal," Yusei concludes.

"Then the people responsible for the destruction of my home... It was the Dark Signers?"

"Do you now see why you need to stop this duel?" Yusei asks.

I sense genuine regret and sorrow within Bommer, until something strange happens. An impossibly dark aura settles over the field, so strong that it makes my head reel. I almost run off of the road, I feel so nauseous from the feeling. Bommer's whale mark glows an ominous violet, and he cracks a wicked smile. "I... I am a Dark Signer! I shall conquer this world in the name of the dark abysses of the Underworld!"

His voice has taken on a horrifying triple bass, making me think that this person I see is definitely not Bommer anymore.

He shakes it away for a moment, fear shimmering off of him in waves. "P-Please, hurry and defeat me! Free my village from the Immortal!" He lets out a great groan, like he's in pain, before the entity returns and seems to have taken over him fully. "If you will not take your turn, human, I will take mine!" He switches Chacu Challhua into ATK mode, then gestures forward. "Chacu Challhua, attack directly!"

Crow, fingers shaking, flips his last face down. "I activate Parasite Mind! I can take control of a continuous trap card on my opponent's field and activate it! So, by choosing Basara and sacrificing Silverwind the Ascendant, I can destroy one monster on your field! Your Earthbound Immortal!"

As the giant whale crashes down to the ground, taking the rest of Bommer's life points down with it, Yusei and I cross down into the lower street and convene with Crow. The geoglyph is beginning to extinguish all around us, pieces of the streets and buildings crumbling from the fire, and I watch a large rock fall towards Crow as we make our way to him.

I don't have the time to react, but Bommer does, and he dives across and rams Crow out of the way, letting the rock crush him instead.

Yusei, Crow, and I toss our duel runners aside and I raise the rock as high as my running emotions will allow while Crow and Yusei pull his body out from under it.

"Why did you do that?" Crow demands.

"You saved my people," Bommer answers weakly. I can feel his life force ebbing away, the dark force around him leaving with it. "I could not thank you enough for that. Find your children, and raise them well."

"I-I will."

Bommer turns to Yusei. "You were right, Yusei—nothing remains after revenge. I should have listened to you before. Please, defeat the rest of the Dark Signers and return this world to the way it should be."

Before anyone can say anything else, Bommer's body turns to a collection of gray dust and blows away on a nonexistent wind.

Silence hangs heavily around the three of us. We look around at each other, trying to accept the gravity of the situation, and rise to our feet without another word on the subject.

"Please don't do anything that stupid ever again," I say weakly. "Okay?"

Crow's face lightens a little, still saddened but able to acknowledge my attempts to make everyone feel better. "I'll make no such promises."

We let out a collective breath, one it seems like we've been holding in for a while, and pull our duel runners out of the dirt. I prop mine up and tug my helmet off, brushing the dirt and dust away from the windbreaker.

_I'm going to keep that promise if it kills me,_ I hear Yusei Kelt.

_I'll be there the whole way. _

We pull our duel runners along the broken road as the clouds from the duel clear, and I glance around at the scorch marks on the ground from the geoglyph.

"Silvan?" Yusei asks. His voice breaks the silence very abruptly, and when I look up at him, his face looks almost troubled.

"What is it?" I ask, puzzled.

"You... You don't look so good."

"Huh?" I say.

Crow glances at me. "Whoa, Sil, you really don't look well."

"What are you talking about?" I look at my reflection in the shiny silver surface of my helmet. They're right—I really don't look well. My face is sort of sullen and paper pale, my eyes are dull, hazy, and sunken in like I've been awake for a millennium. I look chronically sick, but the weird thing is that I feel fine.

"Are you tired? Do you feel weird?"

"N-No," I say. "I've never felt better."

"Maybe we should take you back to the house, so you can sleep or something."

"Guys, I feel fine," I insist. "Maybe I'm just adjusting back to this realm again after being in the spirit world. I'm honestly fine."

Yusei exchanges a look with Crow, then glances back at me. "I'm taking you back to Martha's house."

"Yusei, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"Worrying about my friends is my job," he retorts. "And I'm taking you back to Martha's house."

"You're gonna have to drag me," I quip. "I told you, I'm fine!"

"Silvan," he warns.

"Look, I don't care if I look like I just came back from the dead. I know where you're planning on heading next—I'm going with you to Kiryu's tower and there's no force on Earth that can stop me. I know about myself now, I can protect myself, and I'll protect you if I need to, too. I. Feel. _Fine_."

He exhales, displeased. "Will you at least take a nap in the back of Trudge's car or something?"

"If it makes you stop badgering me. I honestly feel fine." I meet eyes with Crow. "By the way, um... Thanks for finding me. Was it you I screamed at?"

"You remember that? I thought I'd hurt you or something." He looks almost guilty.

"N-No, you didn't. Sorry if I frightened you, it was sort of a thing I couldn't control."

The sadness in the air mixes with almost an awkward monotone. We make it up a ramp, where I see Trudge waiting for us with the twins in tow. "Everything all right?"

I pull my helmet back on—Crow and Yusei do the same. "Yeah," Yusei says. "Let's head to Kiryu's tower."

He revs his engine and we all follow behind him. Not long into the ride, he Kelts the beginning of a sullen conversation to me. _I'm really not excited about you being here for this._

_You're not excited about this in general._

_Yeah, I know, but I wasn't joking when I said I wanted you as far away from Kiryu as possible. He's still in this state, and if it happens that I can't beat him—_

_—be quiet. You're not allowed to think negatively. You're going to defeat Kiryu in a duel, you're going to make peace, and I'm going to be fine. If you want me to so badly, I'll take a nap, and I won't even show Kiryu that I'm here if it stops you from having a heart attack. I'm staying with you for moral support because I know this is going to be hard for you. _

_I appreciate that._

_You'll be okay, right?_

_Yeah, I'll be okay._

We make our way out of the broken streets and to the badlands in the east. I see Kiryu's tower rising up over a hill, and I slow my duel runner while Yusei suddenly speeds up and shoots down the hill. I know Kiryu is down there, waiting, and I pull my duel runner in behind Trudge's car. I jump into the row of seats behind Rua and Ruka, then stare at Trudge through his fear view mirror. "I look like shit, so I'm taking a nap."

Trudge gives me a sarcastic thumbs up as I lay down and stare at the black sky. My mark brightens the air around me as the shape of Kiryu's giant mark burns itself into the sky and a sharp, rolling pain burns itself into my arm.

I don't want to fall asleep—I'm not even tired. I want to be there and watch the duel, be present for Yusei if he needs some kind of support or something, but I don't want to be another thing he has to worry about. It's bad enough that Kiryu has this weird infatuation with using me against Yusei.

I shut my eyes and, strangely enough, my body shuts down and forces me into sleep.

It's dark, quiet, and restless for a while, until I feel the familiar pricking of claws on my shoulder. I raise my phantom hand and touch a large, heavy wing. _Bás?_

_I am happy to see you again, as well, Silvan._

The darkness forbids me from moving or speaking much. _What's happening to me?_

_You have traversed many things in your past few days. To be honest, I am surprised you've remained conscious this long._

_What do you mean?_

_You suffered a great deal of mental and psychological trauma in the attempt on your life, and you sprang back into the world after one night as if nothing had happened. Then you suffered a slight emotional breakdown after the sacrifice of your foster mother, you traveled to the Spirit World and fought against Zeman, and you climbed back on your aerodynamic compact vehicle and continued to drive. You do continue to amaze me, Silvan. _

_Bás, I'm so done with your half-answers._

His strange laugh echoes in the back of my mind_. You are experiencing a temporary shut down. The perks of being half-human, I'm afraid. You have been ignoring your exhaustion for so long, it began to show on your face and your companions noticed it before you did. _

_I don't feel exhausted._

_Well, you are, so I suggest you try not to move much and you listen to the message I have brought you. The Aeron in you should rejuvenate your energy in a short time, anyways, as long as you let yourself settle. _

_Message? What message?_

_Yes, a message, now hush. I don't have much time to speak with you—the dark energy here greatly interrupts our connection. After our adventure together in the Duel Monster Spirit World, I returned to Morrigan. She informed me that there is a great challenge coming for you very soon. _

_Pfft, yeah, because I've had a lack of great challenges in the past. _

_Be quiet, silly girl. This challenge involves your close friend and your biological other half._

_You mean my brother?_

_Yes, yes, quite. You will face a challenge that will require you to not only twist the fate of one of your close companions, but also your other half. _

_Can I get some specifics?_

_Morrigan did not specify for me, either. She only gave me these words to pass on to you, as well as the advice to keep your emotions in check._

_O...kay?_

_I must leave now. Please, refrain from any strenuous activity in the future to avoid shutting down like this again. It really is an inconvenience, and I don't believe you appreciate it, either. _

_Yeah, not really. What did you say earlier about me being human?_

_Any normal human would have collapsed quite a long time ago. The Aeron in you allows you to keep going and keep processing the traumatizing events at a high speed, but since you are still a bit human, you must rest like one._

_Right. Got it. Regular naps and no more jumping into dark Envoys. _

_Quite. I do not know when I will next see you, but if it is not soon, I wish you good fortune._

_Thanks, Bás. _

His presence disappears, and I lay there for a long time pondering everything.

I wonder what challenge he's talking about... Something involving my brother and "my close friend." Well, that could be one of three people. It could be Yusei, but his Shadow Duel is going on right now and my brother isn't here with us. I don't think Jack's duel has gone down yet, but he wanted to go alone. Again with Evan not being present.

What about Aki? It would make sense that we would all convene at her tower, since it's the last one. Is something going to happen to Aki? Is Misty going to stick me in between her and my brother and ask me to save them both, or something?

I don't know, but it's another pressure on my mind. I'm still motionless, useless, and concerned for Yusei. Here I am in some 'shut down,' not knowing what's going on or how I could be helping. Right now, I'm really being reminded of how much of a pain it is to be human. Or half-human.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a whisper of a memory surfaces like a dream—it's one I haven't seen in a long time.

I dimly see the rooftops of Satellite, sheets of rain tumbling down onto my head. The air and the water rush down around me as my body flies off of the edge of a crumbling building, my arms catching a windowsill and launching me inside the building. I roll over my shoulder, the momentum putting me back on my feet, and spot Kiryu examining a map in the middle of the room. He's the Kiryu I know, with his bright eyes and confident stature.

He smiles when he sees me. "Silvan! You came back! You're here to help me!"

"No, Kiryu," I hear myself say. "I'm not." I watch myself pull my duel disk off and set it on the table in front of us. He looks up at me, eyes widening, and Jack, Crow, and Yusei suddenly come in through the back window.

Kiryu turns to them, probably planning on asking them the same question, but they copy me and discard their duel disks on the table. "What's going on, you guys? Aren't we fighting together?"

"Open your eyes, Kiryu," Jack groans.

"There's no way in hell you're surviving if you try to go up against Security," Crow adds.

"We came to get you away from here," I say.

"You need to clear out. Come with us," Yusei chimes.

"Well, hang on!" Kiryu demands. "Security is the only thing standing in our way! If we take them down, Satellite will finally be free!"

"We don't see eye to eye anymore, Kiryu," Jack tells him solemnly.

"We're only here to help you get away," Yusei says.

Kiryu stares between the four of us, mouth wide open like he can't believe what he's hearing.

The building begins to shake, and a mechanical voice comes in through the front window. "Come out with your hands over your head!"

"We need to get out of here," I repeat. "Come on, Kiryu." I grab his arm and pull him towards the back stairwell, with the rest of the guys holding up the rear.

The air around my left arm suddenly grows unbearably hot before I feel sparks pop out of it, and my eyes fly open. I'm drenched in sweat and my bones ache like someone's pulled them apart and let them fly back together, but I pull myself up off of my back and struggle to get out of the car. An impossible amount of fear runs through my veins like a thick injection of morphine. The giant geoglyph has vanished.

I stumble into Crow, who's standing on a ridge and staring out at the dirt track. "D-Did I sleep through the entire duel?"

"Yeah," he answers flatly. "You look better, though."

I don't mention that I feel drunk and off-balance. "Where is Yusei?"

Crow points down the ridge. Yusei looks smaller from here, hunched over in the dirt and turned away from us.

"Is he all right?"

"I... I don't know."

No one has moved. It's not that they don't want to help him—Crow made that evident. They don't know how to help. Yusei is the one who knows how to help someone, whatever their problem is, but I think there are times when he forgets how to help even himself. This is one of those times.

I trip down the ridge and no one stops me as I push myself across the track. The world is spinning like a merry-go round—I probably forced myself awake or something, and my human side isn't liking that too much.

I slow myself down as I get closer to him, my mind reeling and the ghost of exhaustion trying to keep me in its grasp. I almost trip over my own feet as I stop and kneel in the dirt beside him. My hand hovers over his shoulder, and I ask dangerous words. "Are you okay?"

When he looks up at me, his eyes are dark, sad, and brimming with moisture. I can say with complete honesty that I've never seen him cry before—not even when we were kids and he scraped his knee or something. My exhaustion and my dizziness fade almost immediately. I can't be tired or weak or anything other than steadfast if my friends are going to suffer.

I put my arms around his shoulders and he puts his around my waist—we just stay there for a long time, not saying anything.

_I tried to save him._

_I know you did._

_I couldn't do anything. He's gone now._

_We'll get him back somehow—I promise._

_I'm not okay, Silvan._

I make an effort to hug him tighter. Martha gave us tighter hugs when we were hurt because she said it gave us more love. _I know this hasn't been an easy time for you—and it won't be for the rest of the ride. Remember that we're all still here, we're still friends, and we will be long into the future. You knew this would happen eventually, and you know what else we still have to do. We have to make sure the sun comes up in the morning, and I'll be there with you every step of the way—okay?_

_Please don't ever change, Silvan. You could be half monster for all I care—I'm just happy I know you. _

_I'm happy I know you, too. Come on. Maybe you're not okay right now, but I know you will be eventually. _I take his hands and help him out of the dirt, while he wipes the wetness from his cheeks.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that Yusei is still human, especially since he goes through life with a hero's cool, calm, emotionless facade. I'm not sure anyone besides me has seen him vulnerable like this.

"Kiryu wanted me to tell you that he's sorry for what he did to you," Yusei says gently as we cross to the tower.

"Is he?" I ask. "I'll be sure to properly forgive him the next time we see him."

I stand outside the doors of the tower while he goes inside and deactivates it—then he rushes back out and the tower sinks into the ground. We watch it submerge itself into the dirt, and I feel like it's almost a burial ceremony for Kiryu. We'll cover his memory now and come back to dig him back out once the danger has blown over.

I think, despite what Kiryu put my through, I don't bear any ill will towards him. I saw Bommer's change of face, and witnessed darkness close around his heart. They didn't know what they were getting themselves into—I can't blame someone for something that wasn't their fault.

"You look a lot better," Yusei remarks as we cross back over the track. We retrieve his duel runner from where it was left beside a heap of dirt that'd been pushed aside by the geoglyph.

"I actually slept through your entire duel," I say sheepishly. "Bás came to me while I was out and told me that it was just exhaustion. My human side needed to rest and my Aeron side was the only thing keeping me on my feet."

"It's good you did something about it. Try not to overexert yourself anymore."

"That might be harder than you think," I tell him. "Also... He told me that something bad was supposed to happen soon. That I was going to have to simultaneously step in to help both one of my close friends and my brother."

"Any specifics?"

"No. He didn't even know anything beyond that. I've actually been thinking that it'll happen to Aki."

"Why do you think that?"

"Bás said that my brother would be here. I've ruled you and Jack out because he isn't here with us and Jack wanted to go alone. It makes sense that we'd all meet with Aki because she has control of the last tower."

"Isn't your brother at Martha's? Watching the kids there?"

"Yeah... I don't know. I'll just have to stay on my guard and hope I don't do anything life-threatening between now and then."

Yusei sort of scoffs. We pull his duel runner up the ridge, back to Crow, Trudge, and the twins. Crow passes me a look of gratitude, and I nod a little in response.

"Hey, Yusei," Ruka calls gently. "Look." She points to the other side of the ridge, where what could be hundreds of people recovering their bearings. "They appeared there after you defeated Kiryu."

"They must've been the souls used to summon Ccapac Apu," I say. "That means defeating an Immortal frees the spirits inside of it."

"This is great news for the people who've gone," Ruka adds.

"We can't celebrate yet," Yusei tells us. Maybe he's not as aggressively forlorn as he was a few minutes ago, but he's still pretty solemn and I don't think that'll change until all of this Dark Signer crap has blown over.

"You're probably right. There are still two more towers, and they have to go down by sun up, otherwise something bad will happen," I lament.

"How do you know that?" Crow asks stiffly.

"I saw in a vision that something bad was going to happen in three days. That was two and a half days ago."

"Oh."

"There are still three more Dark Signers," Yusei remarks.

A familiar and terrible sensation suddenly begins to course through me—like a spider crawling inside of my body. I manage a shiver before I turn to Trudge, who exclaims in surprised pain before emitting a deathly violet aura.

I push the twins behind me—Yusei, Crow, and I make a solid wall in front of Trudge as he begins to speak in a voice that's way familiar. "You have defeated Kiryu Kyosuke."

"Rudger," I mutter. "You and your goddamn spiders, man."

"I will be your next opponent, Yusei," Rudger claims. "If you'd like to accept my challenge, I'll be waiting at the old Ener-D Reactor."

The spider crawls around in me some more. Images of chandeliers covered in spider webs and dark hallways and the four way bridge across the Envoy flash in my mind.

Trudge blinks away the trance, then looks at us like we're crazy. "What? You guys got a problem, or something?"

I conclude that Trudge has no memory of being possessed. Immediately, I say, "It's a trap."

"It probably is," Yusei remarks. "But I have to go anyways. If I can beat Uru, then Martha, Rally, Tank, Nerve, and Blitz... They'll all be freed."

"Well, we're going too, then," Crow says. "Don't try to stop us. We're in it together now."

"How are we even going to get there?" Trudge complains. "Mikage took that map with her."

"I know where it is," I say hoarsely. "Actually, Crow probably knows where it is. It's where he probably found me."

_We're going to that place?_

I glance at Yusei out of the corner of my eye. Funny he'd be worried about _me_ at a time like this. _Yeah, we'll have to._

_Do you want to sit this one out?_

_No. I'm going. I'm not letting you guys walk into a trap without me. It's a fear I'll have to face eventually, and if something goes wrong, I'll be able to fix it somehow. _

_Will you be all right?_

_I should be asking you that question._

He doesn't respond. We load ourselves onto our duel runners and let Crow lead us to where he came across me, followed by Yusei, me, and Trudge with Rua and Ruka in tow.

_Yusei? _I Kelt. _Will you be all right?_

_...Eventually. Please don't worry about me._

_You worry about me, I worry about you. If you want me to not worry about you, then you should not worry about me._

_You know that isn't possible._

_Then you see my point. I know you'll have no trouble beating Rudger, but I have a feeling he'll try playing some mind games with you. _

_He did that last time. I don't know what to expect. _

I _really wish I could do more than just stand around and play spellcaster..._

_You have done a lot. Like I said, you've always been there. I can't tell you how much that helps me._

I still feel so worthless, but I don't tell him that. _We're going to get through this and everyone will be saved... Right?_

_I have faith in us._

We continue along the dark road, tailing Crow, and I feel my human exhaustion making a reappearance.

I think that Yusei has been through more than I have. I wonder how he hasn't collapsed out of exhaustion, what with suffering his bodily wounds from his duel with Kiryu, waking Aki up, arguing with Jack, dueling Rudger the first time, all the way to right now... He's a strong guy, and he just now broke a little. I can feel him keeping up his heroic face, but the fact is that if he suddenly can't, I need to be the strong one.

I heave away what possible fatigue I could have and continue on.

* * *

**Boy, being half-Aeron is tiring. Unfortunately for Silvan, her human side will frequently handicap her in the future. Should I have mentioned that Aeron are immortal? Being half gives her the ability to keep getting back up after getting knocked down, in case anyone was wondering. **

**She'll eventually be able to Kelt with the rest of the Signers, but we're starting with Yusei because there really isn't anything keeping her from bonding with him (which will be explained at a later date).**

**I'm getting some more reviews, which is awesome! Our views are slowly rising, and God that's great. Have I mentioned how much I value you guys as people? I wish I could give you all a large hug and your own duel runner. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	17. Atlas

**Hey everyone! This chapter is a little short—sorry about that. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

It's cold when we get there, and the air is unbelievably dry. Crow pulls near what looks like a crater from a meteor and stops. "This is the place."

"Yeah... It is," I say. "The air is the same. This is where the explosion that separated the city happened."

"There's something very dark down there," Ruka whispers.

I pull my helmet off. "I know. You guys don't have to come if you don't want to."

"We're definitely coming!" Rua exclaims, seeming like he's totally recovered from his duel. His blind optimism is actually refreshing. "I'll protect you, Ruka!"

"Do you know how we're supposed to get in?" Yusei asks.

I vault over the edge of the crater, kicking up dust when I land. "Something is telling me that we need to go inside through the crater itself."

Yusei follows me over. "I trust your judgement. Let's go, you guys."

Trudge hops over after us, then he and Yusei help Ruka and Rua find their way over. I take the lead in front of the group, picking my way through the ashen ground until we get to the bottomless black hole in the center of the crater.

It's soul sucking inside, and it sickens me that I have to go back, but right now there are more important things than me. I jump into the hole, bracing myself—it's about a three-foot fall to the ground.

Yusei jumps down after me. He lands to my left and regards me strangely before turning back to the opening above us.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing. I could've sworn you were glowing, or something."

He helps Rua and Ruka down. I remember Misty saying something about me having a 'bright' aura... I didn't think she was speaking literally.

"Where's Crow?" Ruka asks once Trudge has joined us.

"Maybe he split off," I say. "He can go where he wants, anyways."

"He's a free spirit. You don't really tell Crow what to do," Yusei adds. "Are you leading, Silvan?"

"Yes," I say firmly. I walk forward in the darkness, feeling at the rocky walls around me so that I know if I'm going to run into something.

_You're definitely glowing._

_Good to know. Hopefully you guys can see, because I can't. _

_Sorry about that._

It's so quiet, his voice echoes around in my mind and I'm almost afraid that other people will hear it. The tunnel begins to branch out and I see a dim light ahead, one that I recognize. I expect to come out into the four way bridge over the Envoy, but what we enter into is a huge cave-like room with a rocky ledge leading down to a rope bridge you'd see in a cheesy adventurer movie. It hangs over what looks like an Envoy, another endless and smooth sea of color.

Yusei catches up and holds his hand out in front of me. "Wait. On the bridge." On the other end of the rope bridge, I see the form of Rudger outlined in darkness somewhere beyond here. "Stay here."

I clench my fists as I watch Yusei walk down to the end of the bridge closest to us.

"Welcome, Yusei," Rudger calls. "This is where I'll be sending you to the Underworld, just as you sent your companion Kiryu."

The temperature in the air spikes around me. Rudger knows exactly where to hit Yusei where he'll break again, and I don't like that.

"You're wrong," Yusei tells him firmly.

"Don't deny it. Your bad blood has caused him to fall to the depths of darkness."

"Kiryu and I made up before he disappeared, and it's your fault for twisting up our misunderstanding. We have no bad blood."

"Despite what you say, your relationship with him was purely fated. From the very beginning, the two of you were fated to be bound by hate."

"Don't talk about fate while I'm standing right here, Rudger!" I call.

He glances towards me. "I see you've returned."

"Yeah, and I'm not taking any of your bullshit. I'm the only one with a hand in fate here!"

"So you've discovered your role in this world. I knew it was only a matter of time before it dawned on you. Unfortunately, your very existence in this form is flawed. It is what causes the hate to string the Signers to their enemies."

"The only reason I'm like this is because some dense asshole decided to try and change fate himself—it doesn't matter to me! I still serve the same purpose, and I'm not going to let you try to tell me that I'm the bad guy."

Rudger sort of scoffs. "Take a look at this light below us. This is the door to an alternate possibility I discovered with your father 17 years ago. Within this light lies the power to change the world! To change fate!"

Power to _change_ fate?

"How?" Yusei demands. "By taking more victims? You're not just going to get away with what you've done!"

"In order for an alternate possibility, some sacrifices are required. People anyways are just small existences when it comes to fate. Changing it, especially, asks for the discarding of many of those small existences like trash. This light you see is fate in itself—it has the power to crush your Aeron and control the fate of whosoever gets caught within it."

_Silvan, don't listen to him—_

_—I'm not,_ I Kelt harshly. _This is a load of bullcrap. You can't listen, either. _

"This light," Rudger continues, "has swallowed the destinies of many. Including your father, Yusei, and apparent father of your Aeron."

"You're insane." I hear the disbelief in Yusei's voice. I refuse to believe any of it, either—I know Rudger is only saying things to get into our heads, but I can't help but wonder how he knows what he knows. "I'm not allowing you to do any more harm than you already have!"

"I'll bury your fate in this light, Yusei, and not even your Aeron can stop it."

"We'll see about that," I mutter.

My mark lights up, along with Ruka's, Yusei's, and Rudger's. Their duel has begun.

I think Rudger has gone first, because he pulls a card from his deck and sets it face down. "I'm looking forward to this duel—I'm eager to see what power you truly hold."

Yusei draws his own hand. "By discarding one card in my hand, I can Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron to the field." The monster appears in a flash of blue light, swinging dual pistols around. "Since I discarded the card Level Eater, I can apply its effect to Quickdraw, reducing his level by one so that I can Special Summon Level Eater from the Grave. By activating Quickdraw Synchron's secondary effect, I can treat it as any tuner monster and tune it with Level Eater in order to Synchro Summon Junk Warrior."

He really isn't messing around with this. It almost makes me worry.

Once the light has cleared from the familiar form of Junk Warrior, Yusei gestures it forward. "Attack Rudger directly."

"I'll trigger my face down—Wolf in Sheep's Clothing." Rudger flips his card, his attitude almost monotonous when compared to the vehement emotion I know Yusei is trying to keep down. "This card allows me to summon one Dark Spider from my hand and another from my deck in attack position."

Yusei pays little mind to them—he just sets one card before quietly ending his turn.

I watch Rudger draw. "I activate the field spell, Spider Web—now, when you attack with a non-Insect-type monster, that monster will be switched into Defense Position at the end of the Damage Step and its Battle Position can't be changed until the end of your next turn."

My mark begins to sputter and ache, before finally spitting a green dome over me. Rua and Trudge gather a little closer to Ruka, who suddenly encloses the three of them in a red orb.

"Then, by tributing both of my Dark Spiders, I can summon to the field my Earthbound Immortal Uru!"

A crimson and black spider rises over us. I loathe that spider with my entire being—somewhere inside of it is my foster mother and some of my best friends. I wish I had a boot big enough to crush it.

"Due to its effect, Uru is allowed to attack you directly!"

"I trigger my face down, Synchro Barrier. By tributing Junk Warrior, I can reduce all the damage I take this turn to 0."

Rudger scowls as he sets two cards. "I play Destiny Activator. By sending the top card of my deck to the Grave, I can check any card you draw. If it is the same type as the card I discarded, Destiny Activator will be destroyed and your life points will be cut in half. With this, I end my turn."

"They aren't kidding around," Trudge mumbles.

"Someone is going to die in this duel," I say flatly. "And God, if this Aeron has anything to do with it, it won't be Yusei."

Yusei draws his card and shows it to Rudger—it must not be the same type as the card he discarded, because nothing happens. He solemnly continues his turn. "I summon Speed Warrior in Attack mode. Then, I activate his special effect. During the Battle Phase of the turn Speed Warrior is summoned, I can double his attack and attack you head on."

I assume that, because of Uru's effects, Yusei is also allowed to attack Rudger directly, but it doesn't seem like it's that easy.

Rudger flips over another face down. "I activate Roar of the Earthbound—when one of your monsters attacks me and it has less ATK than my Immortal, your monster is destroyed and you take half of its ATK points in damage."

My mark pulses. Yusei takes the 900 points in damage almost gracefully, not shifting his expression or his body. Then he sets a card face down.

Rudger, as stoic as Yusei has been, draws his next card and sends Uru to attack again, like I expect. Like I also expect, Yusei has a counter.

"I trigger my face down, Spirit Force. This card reduces the battle damage I take this turn to 0 and allows me to add one monster with 1500 or less DEF to my hand from my Grave."

"Hold on a moment," Rudger says, and my heart sinks as I realize that the endless pattern of raging back-and-forth card throwing has ended. He has a counter counter. "I activate Earthbound Wave. This negates and destroys your Spirit Force!"

I look away as he takes the damage—a whopping 3000 that'll leave his LP at a mere 100. When I look back, he's struggling to get up. I'm scared to Kelt anything to him.

"You'll be going to the light below, very soon," Rudger states, his straight and monotonous overtone growing into something much more malicious.

Yusei fights off a scowl as he draws a card and shows it because of Destiny Activator.

"And you've drawn a monster card—that'll re-trigger Destiny Activator and allow me to halve your life points!"

Rua shifts nervously somewhere behind me. "He only has 50 life points yet..."

"He's done a lot more with less," is all I can answer.

"Your end is near, Yusei," Rudger croons.

"It isn't over until the last card is played," Yusei returns. "I summon Zero Gardna. Then I'll set a card face down and end my turn."

Rudger draws his next card and glances at it almost fondly. "I'm amazed you have the will to continue fighting this long, Yusei. Just like your father. It's a bit ironic that, after 17 years, the Signer to finally face me just so happens to be you. I feel fate at work here."

I wish he'd stop talking about fate like he bends it himself. He's a Dark Signer, not an Aeron, and I think I'd have some sense if he was.

"My fate doesn't have anything to do with you," Yusei replies confidently. It relieves me a little that he has something he's totally sure of.

"Need I remind you that I'm tragically close to sending your soul straight into Ener-D?" Rudger tells him. "I'm feeling generous today, Yusei—I think that, before I send you off to your doom, I'll tell you a story. A story of your father."

Oh man. This can't be good. I refrain from Kelting with him, just because I don't want to break his focus. I'll only step in if I really have to.

"Seventeen years ago, your father Dr. Hakase Fudo discovered the Yuusei Ryushi—the Planetary Particle. Much like a planetary gear, this particle binds together other molecules and keeps them tightly woven together. In fact, your namesake comes from his discovery—your father hoped that you would be able to connect people and keep them together. The Planetary Particle was a new, essential particle needed to create Ener-D. Dr. Fudo created his own theory and launched development on a non-polluting energy mechanism, the Ener-D Reactor. He appointed a close friend to manufacture the machines involved, and as a matter of fact, I was one of his researchers. If you could have seen your father, Yusei—he spoke about the possibilities of his research like a bright-eyed little boy. He believed in the world's future that the Ener-D Reactor could create."

It seems like Rudger knows a lot of unadulterated information. It frightens me how viable it could actually be—Rudger could turn the tables at any moment and fabricate something that'll seem like truth. I linger around his strange, mixed up Dark Signer thoughts in an attempt to figure out if he's lying.

"It was such a bright idea. Back then, no one could think that the Ener-D Reactor would bring about something unprecedented. Because of our experiments, the city was struck by abnormal weather. Dr. Fudo suddenly ordered that the experiments be stopped. He didn't know what it was due to, but he was positive that the abnormalities in the city were connected to the Ener-D Reactor. So, I investigated every piece of data in the world and found a location where disasters were occurring at the same time as the experiments, which was the Nazca Lines. I traveled to South America to investigate them, having heard about the legend of 5000 year old deities coming alive again to fight each other. I learned that evil beings were sealed inside of these lines and that they were locked in battle with the Crimson Dragon for supremacy of the world."

So Rudger investigated the Nazca Lines. Coincidence? I'm not sure.

"During my investigation, I met a mysterious man who claimed to be from a group called Yliaster. This man somehow knew about our halting research, though when I inquired how he knew, the stranger simply replied asking if I truly wanted to continue researching. He told me of the infinite possibilities within the light of Ener-D, and the ways I could change fate if I just used them to my advantage. I'd already been chosen by fate, you see, but in a different form that I am today. You see, at that point in time, I shared your mark, Yusei, and I did not yet know that there was a way to undo it."

My heart thuds against my rib cage in the quiet, and I hear Ruka beside me whisper, "Rudger... Is the fifth Signer?"

I swallow a lump that's formed in my throat. "As it would seem." I want him to keep talking now, because all of his crazy words are actually helping me piece something together.

"In the end, it was concluded that the research had to continue, even if I had to get rid of Dr. Fudo. Though he tried to stop production and keep Ener-D from becoming something that could change the fate of the world, he failed and was trapped within its endless light."

The last piece falls into the puzzle: the vision I once had of Rudger suddenly makes perfect sense. "It was _you_."

"You seem to be a bit out of it, Aeron. Would you mind explaining?"

I raise my voice, rage pooling inside of me like venom. "It was you! When Bás said that someone fucked around with the stars of fate... It was you! You not only caused Zero Reverse and left hundreds, maybe thousands of people without homes or families... But you also stuck me here as the only existing half human, half Aeron and basically screwed over my friends. Is that right?"

A hint of a sadistic smile makes its way onto his face.

One guy's mistake was all it took to change everything. A guy that I was pretty much created to carve the fate of in the first place thought he could do it himself and screwed up the fate of hundreds of other people. I guess when Bás said that fate was bendable, he really meant it. One step out of line, and everything is different. Aeron must be far more important than they seem.

"Do you think you're God, or something?" Yusei demands. "How many lives are you going to take until you're satisfied?"

"I will take as many required for the formation of the new world. We're on the cusp of rebirth. Uru, attack directly!"

"I activate Zero Gardna's effect! By tributing it, I can reduce my battle damage this turn to 0!"

Rudger throws a face down. "Yet you keep holding out."

Yusei draws, throws two face downs, and then ends his turn. "I'll keep holding out as long as I need to."

"Quite the mistake," Rudger scoffs as he draws. "I activate Earthbound Whirlwind! As long as I control an Earthbound Immortal, this card will allow me to destroy all spell and trap cards on the field!"

"I trigger my own face down—Starlight Road. When a card would destroy two or more cards on the field, I can negate and destroy that card and summon Stardust Dragon to the field."

As I watch the familiar burst of blue light bringing an old friend back, I think that's what Yusei was expecting from Rudger.

"It's a bit late for your dragon, Yusei," he calls.

"It's never too late—I activate Shooting Star. When I control Stardust Dragon, I can destroy one spell or trap on the field. I'll be destroying your field spell!"

"Not quite! Due to my own face down, Anti Emptiness, I can reduce the attack of my Immortal to 0 for the rest of this turn in exchange for the negation of a spell or trap." Then, he ends his turn with a sort of smug undertone to his expression.

It's Yusei's turn, and he draws a card. "I activate the spell card, Battle Waltz. This card will allow me to summon a Waltz Token and copy the ATK and DEF of a synchro monster."

The monster shifts to match Stardust Dragon. Rudger plays aimlessly with the cards in his hand. "Earthbound Immortals can't be selected as attack targets."

"That's not my target," Yusei snipes. "My Waltz Token has the ability to attack you directly."

"Well, then, I'll have to activate my trap, Roar of the Earthbound! When a monster with lower ATK than Uru attacks, I can destroy the attacking monster and deal damage to you equal to half of that monster's attack!"

"I activate Stardust Dragon's special effect—Victim Sanctuary!"

"He's going to do it!" Ruka says hopefully, watching Stardust pave the path of attack for the Waltz Token.

"I'm not so sure of that," I say as my eyes catch Rudger's hand flipping another face down over. "I activate Brilliant Shrine Art! This card will redirect a direct attack to my monster, Uru! Welcome to the end, Yusei, though you must not feel bad—you inscribed quite the page in the pages of the world's history."

"It's not over," Yusei tells him. "When a Waltz Token is destroyed, both players take 0 Battle Damage. And another thing—when my token is destroyed by a monster, that monster loses ATK equal to that of the token."

Rudger frowns. "It doesn't seem that you've accepted your fate yet, Yusei."

"I could care less about my fate," Yusei answers. "Because of my 'fate,' so many people have suffered and lost their lives or their families or their faith! If my dad hadn't done his experiments with Ener-D, then my friends wouldn't have had to live the way they did—they'd have had families and opportunities and lives if it'd never happened! You know, I don't even know why they want me as a friend! Why do they not bear any bad feelings towards me for what my fate has done to them? You've given me a lot of unnecessary information, Rudger, and if you want to give me any more, then why don't you answer that question?"

I spent my childhood jumping sheepishly in and out of his head, accidentally seeing his past and his present and knowing what he was going to say before he said it... I've literally shared his pain, I can talk to him telepathically, and I've known all of his secrets for as long as I can remember. Something in my heart tells me that he's been seriously swayed by Rudger's words, but maybe he's felt this way for a long time and I just haven't known.

_I've known you my whole life_, I Kelt, _but I've never known that. If you've felt this way for a long time, I'm sorry I never knew._

He doesn't answer.

"Do you think that matters to me?" I shout. "Do you think it matters to any of us? To Crow or Jack or Kiryu or anyone else? Our lives weren't ruined by your dad, Yusei, and you're wrong to think you should take blame for anything that could've happened because of him. Remember that your fate is connected to all of ours—because we met you, our lives are better!"

"Yeah!" I spot Crow on the other side of the cave, at the mouth of what looks like a cavern running up into the rocky ceiling. "She's right, Yusei—none of us ever thought our lives were ruined by you or your dad. By anything, actually! We had what we had and that was fine with us! Don't feel responsible for that. If anything, my fate was meeting you and Jack and Silvan and everyone else!"

Yusei sort of hesitates, and then jumps straight back into the duel. "I activate Stardust Flash! During the turn I activate Victim Sanctuary I can special summon Stardust Dragon back to the field and attack you!"

"What?!"

Uru takes its last breath before it falls into the Envoy, sending up showers of multicolored stardust. The duel is over—Yusei's won.

Rudger, his form turning gray, suddenly begins to laugh. "This is not the end, Yusei. A greater force is slowly making its way to this world, and if the control towers aren't sealed before morning, the gates to the Underworld will open and the King of Hell will wreak havoc on this world."

King... Of Hell? Is that the bad thing that's supposed to happen? I slide down the rocky ledge in front of me, trying to make my way to the bridge.

Before his body can disintegrate, Rudger throws the sleeve off his right arm. It's a mechanical limb. He presses something on it and the world bursts. Fire flies across the bridge, severing the ropes.

Everyone else is watching the bridge give out and Rudger's dust escaping the crater on an invisible wind. They watch Yusei fall down to the Envoy, unable to do anything but just stand there. And watch.

I can't just watch this—what if he dies? What if something worse happens? Rudger changed fate once and it put everything here—I can't let him change it again. Bás was right—every single moment I exist can change the next, and this moment could change a lot of things if I decide to stand here and watch.

So I do the stupidest thing possible, because I know I can survive; I survived once, so who says I can't do it again? I'll never forgive myself if something bad happens to Yusei, or any of my friends for that matter.

I dive into the Envoy after him, the sigil of the Crimson Dragon burning on my back.

I don't hit the Envoy like I did before, like it was a wall of concrete and I'd been flung against it. I barely feel a thing. Purple light pushes at me from all directions, but the green light on my arm turns red and forces the darkness back. It feels like I'm free falling, down through the light and into open air.

When I land, I somehow land on my feet, and I can see around me for miles. My body is covered in glowing red sigils, meeting in the mark on my arm and the sign of the Crimson Dragon over my shoulder blades.

The ground beneath my feet is firm, but the scenery shifts and changes to a billion different unrecognizable places every time I move. Is this supposed to be the Underworld? I envisioned a lot more fire and despair.

I think I'm pulling myself up over a ridge when a dozen dark figures rush up around me and grab for me, trying to pull my body down.

"Let go," I say, though my voice sounds like it's been muffled. "_Begone! Tá mé an solas!_"

The spirits jump back, like the words I didn't mean to say are some sort of repellant. They stay a distance away from me, making sort of a circle around me that they seem afraid to break.

"My name is Silvan," I say, trying to keep my voice from shaking. They seem like benevolent spirits... Maybe they can help me. "My friend fell down here. Can you help me find him?"

The dark shapes suddenly blur away, gone save for two of them. The one on the left drifts closer to me, a segment of its shadow disconnecting from the rest of its body like an arm. "S...il...v...an..."

"Yeah, that's my name," I reply. "Can you please help me?"

The shadowy limb suddenly makes contact with my cheek, like a caress. A whisper of a memory blows through my mind—a newborn baby, with piercing blue eyes.

It dawns on me that these spirits might be the spirits of people who were lost in Ener-D. What's more, I might already know who they are. I shift around in my pockets for my spell book. "Hold on—there must be a spell or something in here that'll sharpen your images."

The first spirit waits patiently in front of me, the second lingering in the background. Are they who I think they are?

"Here. A necromancy spell._ Illuminate an dorchadas an bháis, in ainm an bandia mór Morrigan_."

The faces of the shadowed figures begin to come into focus, outlined in red light. The spirit closest to me suddenly sharpens—I see a man much older than me, his coat dusted and dirty, his face smeared with mechanical grease, and goggles missing one lens hanging around his neck. It's my father.

The spirit behind him becomes another familiar figure, with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his wrinkled white labcoat: Yusei's father.

"Silvan," my father says again. I can hear him clearly this time.

"D-Dad?"

"Why are you here?" He frowns, his phantom fingers lingering on my cheek.

"I-I jumped in after a friend of mine fell," I answer. "Have you seen him? He's taller than me, black hair, blue eyes—"

"My son," Dr. Fudo interrupts. His eyes are the same dreaming navy as Yusei's. "Yes, I know where he is."

"Silvan, you shouldn't have come," my father tells me.

"Aren't you glad to see me?" I ask.

"Of course I'm glad to see you—God, you've grown."

"It's been seventeen years, Dad."

"Yes, it has... Time passes more slowly here. It seems like it's been longer. But Silvan, honestly, it's dangerous here."

"I don't care," I say harshly. "I can handle danger. Dr. Fudo, will you please take me to Yusei?"

He motions for me to follow him; I trail behind him obediently and immediately pick up on the similarities between Yusei and his father. They carry themselves with the same innate pride, and Dr. Fudo's face is almost set in permanent repose like Yusei's sometimes is. He's different than I remember in my visions, like the life's been pulled out of him in more ways than one.

"I'm not sure if you're brave or stupid for willingly coming down here," Dr. Fudo tells me.

"Sometimes being brave requires making stupid decisions. I'm used to doing both." My father catches up with us, examining me as we go.

"That's an adequate answer. Up ahead, here."

We cross another strange ridge and I see the rest of the black spirits gathered around something. Or someone.

"Release him!" Dr. Fudo shouts. "He had nothing to do with this!"

The black figures dissipate, and I see Yusei getting up off of the ground, confusedly looking around. I remember the spirits closing in on me, and the words I said in Celtic to make them go away—Yusei didn't have the power to expel those spirits, but his father did. I wonder why.

"There's not much I can do for him," Dr. Fudo remarks. "Continue from here until you find a river—if you follow that river to the end, you'll be able to get out of this place. And please, do apologize to him for me for burdening him with such an outrageous destiny."

"I will," I say. I find it sort of funny how we can talk so easily, like we've known each other for decades.

"Who's there?" Yusei calls, squinting like he's staring into the sun.

Can he not see us? "It's me," I say, moving towards him.

"Silvan? What are you doing here?"

"Are you kidding? I'm not letting you jump into some dark void without me. Come on—I know how to get out of here."

"All right."

We start in one direction, but I feel like I have another thing to address. "Wait!" I turn back towards my father and Dr. Fudo. "Do you know if there's any way I can free you from here?"

"Impossible," Dr. Fudo answers flatly.

"I'll come back and I'll find some way."

"You can't come back here, Silvan," my dad interrupts. "This place is like purgatory. You were lucky to come here alive and you may not escape if you come again."

"I know if I just tried—"

"_Go_," my dad urges. "Your time to leave is getting less."

He and Dr. Fudo suddenly fade into the shifting landscape before I can answer.

"Silvan?" Yusei asks. "Who were you talking to?"

"O-Our dads," I stutter. "I was talking to our dads."

"What? Are you kidding?"

"Yeah, come on—I don't think we have much time to get out of here." We walk together over the morphing hills, the bright red lights of my sigils making the air around us glow. "I dove down here after you fell—"

"Why?" He interrupts.

"I survived it once." If I didn't come down here, would he have survived? I don't really have to say it for him to get the idea. "I got down here and these spirits practically tore my limbs off, but something slipped out in Celtic and they left me alone. A couple of them stayed and I had to cast a spell so that I could recognize them, but it turned out to be my dad and yours—they led me to you and told me to follow a river."

Yusei stares ahead at the hills and answers, "Do we know where we are?"

"We must be inside the Ener-D energy, or something. My dad said it was some form of purgatory."

"I see."

"You beat Rudger, Yusei," I say encouragingly. "Martha and the guys, everyone who was sacrificed to summon Uru—they're all back now, aren't they?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

What are you thinking? I Kelt.

"What I said, back on the bridge about ruining your lives—"

"I don't want to hear it," I cut in. "I told you he was going to play some mind tricks with you, and you seem to have forgotten that Rudger's the guy that decided to screw everything around. He's the reason everything up until now has ever happened, and he's the reason I'm—" I use the term Rudger called me by like a curse word, "—_flawed_."

"You're not flawed," Yusei tells me, sort of like he's offended.

I realize that there's water rushing beside us. It's hard to see because the landscape won't focus for me. "In the eyes of the universe, I'm flawed, and I'm totally okay with that."

"You _aren't_ flawed," he says again.

"My point is, it's not something that should be on your conscience. You have this weird thing about you that always feels like it needs to take the blame for every bad thing that happens in the world. Please try not to worry about things that are out of your hands."

"That's harder than you think. Sometimes it feels like the entire universe is on my shoulders, and I can't do anything except take blame for what happens when it's under my watch."

"Well, I said this to Aki when we were in Arcadia—this world is big. We're small people, and all we're doing is living in it. We don't control the way it turns or when and where the sun will rise, but we do control how we impact everything. Actually, the only thing we can really do for the world is make it small enough to accommodate us or expand our horizons and make it ours. The way it responds to us is all up to chance."

"Well, it feels like chance is trying to kill me," he sighs.

"At this point, I think chance is trying to kill all of us—I mean, come on, we're standing in purgatory while our friends are in the real world trying to prevent the King of Hell from popping his delightful head out of some dark, hot crevice." I put my arm around his shoulder in an attempt to be comforting. "If you think about it, we've actually done a pretty good job surviving so far."

"I'll believe that one when we get out of here."

"Your dad said to go to the end of the river," I wonder. "How long does it go?"

"It could go on forever, for all we know."

I scoff. "Do you really think your dad would send us on an endless meander along a river that doesn't end? I don't really know him that well, but he doesn't seem like the sadistic type."

He looks at the ground. "I wish I could've talked to him."

I bite off a rueful smile. "He reminded me a lot of you. The way you walk and talk, and you have the same eyes... Actually, he wanted me to apologize to you for 'burdening you with such an outrageous destiny.'"

"Oh," he mumbles. "What about your dad?"

I scoff. "I'm really not surprised he's my biological father. Half-Aeron or not, I can see myself becoming him eventually."

"How's that?" Yusei laughs humorlessly.

"Dirty coat, broken goggles, grease smeared all over his face... I think we're pretty alike." I pause before I say, "I wonder what it would've been like if none of this ever happened. If Rudger hadn't screwed around with everything, and our parents had survived..."

"I'm not sure I want to think about that," he replies. "If things had been different, I'm not sure we would've been friends."

"What are you talking about? Of course we'd—"

"—you'd have been completely Aeron. Your name probably wouldn't have been Silvan. You probably wouldn't look like you do now. Aki might have never escaped from Arcadia. I may have never met Jack or Crow or Kiryu or anyone else. Actually, I'm not sure I hate Rudger entirely for what he did to change our lives."

"Great," I tell him. "So don't get yourself so bothered about that stuff. Life turned out the way it did, and we can't change that. Life is going to turn out a certain way in the future, and we can't change that either. We're still here and we're still friends, remember?"

He exhales. "Damn, I hate it when you do that."

"What?" I laugh.

"You twist me right into proving your point for you."

"I just know what to say," I laugh. "I think it's part of my job description to change peoples' minds."

"We'd probably all be dead if you didn't," he sighs.

I smile at the ground and suddenly realize that the river beside us is thinning out—it cuts right off into a barrier of pitch black.

"Whoa," I say. "I guess when he said end of the river, he really meant end of the river." I poke at the wall—it has the consistency of jello and I can sense that it goes on for a long way.

"What exactly do we do now?" Yusei asks.

I touch the black mass again and focus this time on the bright red marks all across my body—their light reflects off of the barrier, and I have to wonder if this is where I really become useful. I reach for his hand and our fingers lace together. "Promise me you won't let go."

Tentatively, he nods, and I shove my way into the never ending world of darkness.

Once we're inside, the only light comes off of the runes running across my arms and legs. We sort of float for a while, partially illuminated in scarlet light, until the world seems to turn upside down and we begin to fall upwards. It's the rabbit hole all over again, but the momentum of our fall is almost like we're rising too quickly out of water.

I hang desperately onto his hand, trying not to fall away, when he suddenly yanks my body towards his and closes his arms around me like iron girders. I hang on to him, my hands digging holds in his jacket, and the pressure on us lightens like we're getting close to the surface.

As soon as we hit the top of the barrier, my marks go out and I suddenly can't feel Yusei there anymore. Worry forms in the pit of my stomach. Did he let go of me? Did the momentum eventually just force us apart?

When I open my eyes, I'm staring at the dimly illuminated rocky ceiling of the cavern we were inside not long ago. Ruka and Crow are staring over me, and they both let out an enormous sigh when they see my eyes open. "Oh, thank God!"

I push myself up and I see Yusei next to me, rubbing his head like he banged it on something. "That was interesting," he remarks.

"Tell me about it," I say. I look up at Crow, Ruka, Rua, and Trudge. "How are you people doing?"

"Pfft, obviously better now!" Crow exclaims.

"We thought you were dead," Trudge groans.

"_Trudge_ thought you were dead," Rua corrects. "Adults are so stupid—we knew you guys would make it back."

I smile, seeing the dried up trails of tears on his cheeks. As I keep getting to know Rua and Ruka, I'm realizing that they're two of the best people to exist.

"Sorry for worrying you guys," Yusei tells them.

"That doesn't matter," Crow says. "You guys are back, and that's all that counts. We still have a job to do."

"Right. Two more towers before sun-up. We should get going." Crow and Trudge help us to our feet, and we all load back through the tunnel and help each other out of the crater.

"Make that one tower," I say when we're out. The hummingbird glyph is fading out of the sky when we're back in the cold, dry air—we stand side by side and watch it disappear.

"How do we know who won?" Rua asks.

"Jack won," Ruka tells him immediately. "I can feel it."

"That settles that," I sigh. "We should meet Mikage and Aki at Misty's tower."

Yusei probably hears the slight disappointment in my voice. _Hey, who knows?_ He Kelts. _Maybe nothing will happen at all._

_With us, Yusei? I highly doubt that. Bás told me something was going to happen, and I'm thinking that it's going to happen soon. _

He reaches tentatively for my hand. _I'll be there every step of the way._

I let him take it, but I have a sinking feeling that when I do face whatever threat is coming my way, I'll be facing it alone.

* * *

**Well, we'll see what happens next chapter, won't we? **

**There's a lot of conflict at this point in the story, especially with the Signers facing some of their greatest threats. Silvan may not be a Signer, but she certainly gets into trouble like one. **

**Anyways, thanks again for reading this story! It warms my heart to see that it's liked by people.**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	18. Control

**Hey guys! Here's Chapter 18! Enjoy!**

* * *

I know this isn't going to be good the moment we arrive and I see that the control tower is inside of an abandoned amusement park. When I get off of my duel runner, I disengage my duel disk from the front panel and strap it to my arm—who knows what'll happen here?

Yusei pulls his helmet off and stares at the second Sector Security car parked in front of the dilapidated gates. "It looks like Mikage and Aki have already arrived. Maybe we should split up and look for them."

"I'm going with Ruka!" Rua calls, hooking his arm through hers.

"That was sort of a given," she replies.

"I don't need anyone to handicap me," Trudge scoffs.

Yusei turns to me and opens his mouth to say something, but I interrupt. "I'll go alone."

He stares at me. _Are you sure?_

_Yes. If something bad is going to happen, I don't want anyone else to get caught up in it. _

_Silvan, I promised I'd be there—_

_I'm going alone._

He sighs like he's upset. "I'll go alone then, too."

We begin to split off, everyone else finding pathways in and around the park, while I take a pathway towards a Ferris wheel._ I'll keep you posted if anything goes wrong, I Kelt._

_That'd be nice. It's a little anticlimactic, but Rua's right—this place does look like a setting for a horror movie. _

_The only horror we're running into is probably Misty. _

_You're saying that like running into her won't be terrifying._

_Oh, it will be. Probably for Aki the most—it's her duel, anyways_. I pause_. I'm kind of worried about her._

_Me too. _

_The way that Misty spoke to her wasn't good for her self-esteem. I'd hate for her to relapse into her Black Rose persona..._

_Where are you?_ He asks.

I pass by what looks like a house of mirrors_. Some hallway full of mirrors. Definitely not going in there._

_I wonder how far this connection can stretch._

_It could probably go on for miles_, I answer. _Remember I'm meant to be able to Kelt with all of you._

_Have you tried with anyone else? _

_No... Do you think I should?_

_Probably. You'd have to start somewhere. _

_All right. Maybe I could try Aki?_

_Fair enough. I'm still here when you're done. _

His voice fades from the back of my mind, leaving me by myself. Even though it's only been a couple hours that I've been able to Kelt, there's something comforting about having someone in your head to talk to. It isn't as lonely.

I expand my mental reach as far as I can manage. I feel the weak breeze pushing hot air past my cheeks, the motes of dust in the air rushing in and out of my lungs each time I breathe, and the faint weight shift in the ground every time one of the broken amusement park attractions creaks and moves.

From here, I can sense the movements of my friends and others I don't think I recognize. Their thoughts are silent as always, save for Trudge and Rua who examine how freaky they think this place is. I can faintly detect Mikage in the distance, whose thoughts are very oddly slow and tired.

There's a dark, heavy resistance in the south, which I assume to be Misty. Somewhere near her, I feel Aki's heart beating quickly and nervously.

I heave my focus onto the rushing beat of her heart when a spontaneous thought suddenly blurbs in the back of my brain.

_Silvan_.

The word breaks my focus, pulling me back to the real world. Whoever thought my name is very, very close.

_Silvan_.

I turn around, searching for the person the thought belongs to. For some reason, I can't sense them anywhere.

_Silvan_.

It's almost an echo, and I exhale loudly when I can hear it ringing in the house of mirrors. I remind myself that there are worse things in life than creepy hallways full of mirrors and force myself to begin the long trek down the corridor.

"Silvan."

It's a spoken word now, as soft as a whisper. My heart sinks as I realize who the voice belongs to. "E-Evan?"

I stare at the mirrors as I pass them, my reflection changing and twisting with every different plate of glass until I suddenly see a reflection of Evan walking next to me. I stop in my tracks and he copies me, but when I turn around, he's not standing there. "Silvan," he says again, but the reflection doesn't speak with him. "Watch out."

The mirror shatters and shards of glass fly everywhere—I don't have the time to react before I feel sharp pains all over my face and my hands as I raise them to cover myself. Blood drips down my cheek.

He's standing there, at the end of the hall, with a duel disk strapped to his arm. There's something off about him, something that I can't put my finger on.

He gestures for me to follow him and walks down a separate corridor. I pick the glass out of my hands and chase down after him until I reach a different, round room completely enclosed in mirrors. As soon as I wander closer, the exit seals behind me.

Yusei? I Kelt nervously. Can you hear me?

No answer.

"Don't try that," Evan says monotonously. "It won't work in here."

"Evan," I say warily. "I thought you were at Martha's. Are you all right?"

He stares blankly ahead while his duel disk comes out into a dueling position—in the reflection of him closest to me, I can see that his eyes are cloudy and glazed over. Like he's some zombie.

I swipe blood off of my forehead. "You... You want me to duel you, don't you?"

Without giving me any verbal answer, he pulls five cards from the deck in the duel disk and waits for me to do the same. I've never seen Evan duel—I didn't even know he knew how. I exhale, brace myself for the worst, and draw five cards.

He draws a sixth. "I summon Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid in attack mode. Then I set one card face down and end my turn. Due to the effect of Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid, I now have to send the three top cards of my deck to the Grave."

He runs a Lightsworn deck? That's something I didn't expect. "I summon Red Gadget in attack mode—due to its special effect, I can also summon its counterparts from my hand or deck. Join us, Yellow Gadget and Green Gadget! Green Gadget, attack Auruks!"

Green Gadget has 1400 ATK, while Aurukus has 1200—I'm hoping he'll trigger his trap to show me what it is.

"I activate my face down trap—Lightsworn Barrier. When a Lightsworn monster on my field is selected as an attack target, I can send the top two cards of my deck to the Graveyard in order to negate the attack."

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn," I say. My face down is Rare Metalmorph—Rare Metalmorph will raise the attack of one of my monsters as well as negate a spell card if necessary.

Evan takes his draw. "I activate Solar Recharge. This card allows me to draw two cards by discarding a Lightsworn monster in my hand, and then send the next two cards on the top of my deck to the Graveyard."

I watch him discard two more cards, when he sets three face downs and uses his monster's effect to discard three more cards off of the top of his deck. Part of me wonders why he's discarding so many cards, but then again it could be a major key to something bad.

I draw for my turn—I'm going to have to summon something huge. "I activate the continuous spell card, Machina Armored Unit. Once per turn, I can summon a Machina monster in addition to normal summoning for my turn. Now, I summon Upload from my hand—due to this card's effect, I can also summon one Level 4 or below Machine-type monster from my hand or deck. I'll choose War-Machine Lancer!"

My hand contains Machina Soldier, the spell card Time Machine, and the trap card Dimensional Prison. I should keep Machina Soldier in my hand in case I need to quickly summon Machina Force and Machina Cannon.

"Now I tune Upload with War-Machine Lancer in order to synchro summon Dreaded War Machine Dragon!"

The mirrors around us explode from the pressure—I'm ready for them this time. The lopsided shards of glass bounce off of the air around me. Evan flips over a card. "I activate my face down card Vanquishing Light. By tributing a Lightsworn monster on my field, I can negate the summon of a monster and destroy it."

"Due to the special effect of Dreaded War Machine Dragon, its summoning is unable to be negated. Sorry, Ev, but you just cleared your field for nothing. Dreaded War Machine Dragon, attack directly!"

"Not so fast. When I have five or more Lightsworn monsters in my Graveyard and I've been targeted for a direct attack, I can summon Judgement Dragon from my hand or deck."

The section of mirrors behind Evan explodes as the monster—a huge white dragon—writhes onto the field. The glass flies right past him and ricochets off of my shield.

The thing is huge with 3000 ATK points—War Machine only has 2500 ATK. "I activate my face down card, Rare Metalmorph! By equipping this card to Dreaded War Machine Dragon, I can raise its attack by 500 and have enough attack to stand up to Judgement Dragon!" A silver sheen covers War Machine, giving it the extra boost it needs. "War Machine, attack Judgement Dragon!"

Because of their equal power, both dragons are destroyed. A fierce wind blows my hair everywhere.

"Now—Red, Green, and Yellow Gadgets, attack directly!"

He stands completely still, stoic as he takes 3900 points in damage. I wouldn't deal actual damage to him... He's my brother. In this state, would he think of hurting me?

"Now I place one card face down and end my turn."

Evan draws for his turn. "I activate Beckoning Light. By discarding a card in my hand, I can return a card in my Graveyard to my hand—since I still have five or more Lightsworn monsters in my Grave, I can bring Judgement Dragon back to the field. By discarding my entire hand, I can skip right past your Gears and attack you directly."

My stomach flips over. I don't have a card down that can combat that.

The dragon looms over me, a great white shadow, and suddenly breathes a great tongue of blue fire over me. It's very faint, but I can feel real heat. Real fire. The gale kicks up the glass around me and throws me backwards into the shattered mirrors. I land on my hands and knees in more glass as more wounds open up on my hands, face, and now my arms through the slices in my jacket.

This is real battle damage—real pain. It isn't as bad as other things I've felt, but it's the first time I've felt palpable hurt from a duel. I cringe as I think of the real agony that Aki and the Dark Signers have caused. Hell, I cringe at the thought of the pain I could cause.

I'm positive of one thing: I'm definitely not dueling my brother.

"Now, I activate my face down, Sebek's Blessing. I can gain damage I just dealt on my opponent as Life Points."

3000 life points, back just like that. Now he has 3100 while I have 1000. One more hit from Judgement Dragon, and I'm done for. Normally, I wouldn't be worried about losing, but with all of the Dark Signer duels going on, I have a feeling that I could lose a lot if I lose this duel.

"I'll end my turn here."

I draw a card. Machina Defender. My Gears won't do any damage to Judgement Dragon. If I can pull off my combo... Maybe I could win. He's out of cards to trap me with, anyways. "I summon Machina Defender! Due to his special ability, I can summon Commander Covington! Next, I reactivate Machina Armored Unit to summon Machina Soldier from my hand—due to his special ability, I'm allowed to summon Machina Sniper. Then, by releasing Machinas Defender, Soldier, Sniper, and Commander Covington, I can summon Machina Cannon!"

The roof creaks as Machina Cannon struggles to fit under it. I can't summon Machina Force—I'd have to pay 1000 life points to attack, and that's all I have. Machina Cannon is just as good, though, because its attack is the combined attack of all the cards I just discarded: 5300 ATK.

"Machina Cannon, destroy Judgement Dragon for the last time!"

Glass flies around everywhere, but I purposely direct it to avoid me and Evan. I don't know what's going on with him, but I don't want him hurt. The damage counter leaves him with 800 LP, but I still have my Gears.

"Green Gadget, finish this duel!"

The glass clatters down to the ground, and the mirror blocking the exit falls as Evan's LP drops to 0. Suddenly, he collapses with it, cards flying everywhere and his duel disk skittering into a pile of glass.

"Evan!" I exclaim. He groans as I shift through the glass and make an attempt to wake him. "Evan, are you all right?"

"What happened?" he says groggily. "Where are we? Hey, you're bleeding..."

"Yeah, no shit. We're in a house of mirrors, in an abandoned amusement park," I reply. "Here, come on, help me help you up."

I grab his hand and he uses it to anchor himself as he gets up.

"Your cards," I say, shifting around on the ground and gathering them into a pile.

"What?" He asks. "I thought I left those in Arcadia. And I don't have a duel disk. What's going on?"

"We sort of had a duel. And it was weird. I couldn't get through to you." I stack the cards into the deck and pass them back to him. "We need to get out of here—I don't think this place is good to be in." I don't mention the spooky reflections or the doors closing up behind us, but he seems to believe me enough to stumble after me.

"What am I doing here?" He asks. "Last I remember, I was at Martha's watching out the window for the geoglyphs... Then I fell asleep and suddenly I'm here?"

I don't answer as we exit the house of mirrors. As soon as we step outside, Yusei's voice comes into my head like turning the volume up on headphones too quickly. My mark lights up, and I see a lizard glyph suspended in the sky._ Silvan!_

_Whoa! Hey! That was loud!_

_Where are you? _He sounds sort of... Desperate? Concerned?

_It's a long story. Why do you sound so—_

_—worried for my life? _He interrupts. _Probably because I'm trapped with Mikage in a room filling with water._

_Oh fuck. So much for going alone. I'm coming to get you._

_Please hurry—We're running out of space to breathe._

I grab Evan's hand. "Come on, we have to find Yusei."

"Wha—how come?"

I take off running, dragging him behind me. "He's in a room filling with water."

"How do you know—"

"Not enough time to explain! Come on!"

He obediently takes up a trail behind me as I widen my dome of thought. I sense rushing water like it's blood pumping through my veins—somewhere close by, I can see what looks like a fun house; the kind with moving floors and lots of stairs.

"In there." I vault over the gate and rush upstairs, into a room with a gate over the floor. Outside, I can see Aki dueling Misty. "Yusei?"

"In here!" He calls. I see his hand poking out from under the gate. I rush across the room and peer down into the grating. Yusei and Mikage have their faces pressed against the metal bars so they can breathe.

"Christ," I grumble. My mark sends off sparks and I will the water to seep up around the grating and then freeze—the pressure causes the metal grate to burst off of the ground and fly into the wall on the other end of the room. Evan grabs Mikage's hand and I take both of Yusei's arms to pull them up out of the water, and then I freeze the valve inside of the chamber shut. "How the hell did you guys get stuck in there?"

He frowns and brushes what I think is blood off of my cheek. "You're bleeding."

"Don't change the subject," I lament.

"I was attacked," Mikage replies. "I didn't see who, but they knocked me out and I woke up in that chamber with Yusei."

"Some psychic Sector Security officer shoved me down and slammed the grate," Yusei tells me.

"Psychic Sector Security officer?" I ask warily.

Evan suddenly jumps at me, which takes me completely by surprise. For some reason, I can't sense him the way I could before.

My body flies to the wall and his fingers close around my throat. They're holding at a force that wants to crush—his eyes are in the same clouded, zombie-like stare they were in while we were dueling.

I struggle to breathe when suddenly his hands come away from me and I land on my back on the floor. I see Yusei, who's shoved Evan to the wall and twisted one of his arms behind his back. My brother still stares blankly ahead, without any emotion.

This... This must be the challenge Bás was talking about.

Evan, being much taller and bigger than Yusei, easily shoves him away, and then goes out the door.

"Are you all right?" Yusei pulls me off of the floor and puts his hands on my shoulders, examining my face with a concerned expression.

"I'm fine," I mumble. "We need to go after him. Something is very wrong here." I run out of the room, followed by Yusei, and peer across the battlefield where Aki and Misty are. There's something very off about the air. "Something's wrong with Aki."

"What do you mean?" Yusei asks warily.

"The pressure in the air, it isn't right."

"What are you talking about?"

"Psychics have this pressure around them—because Aki is so strong, the pressure is stronger than other psychics... But it gets weird when she uses her power." I stretch my mind out to Aki. If I'm going to Kelt to her, why not do it now? _Hey. Can you hear me? Aki?_

_Destroy. Fear is pointless. Destroy all I see. Burn it all to the ground. Any life he doesn't want is pointless. Destroy._

"This is so weird," I whisper.

"There's your brother." Yusei points across to a crumbling building on the other end of the geoglyph. I see Evan meandering towards it, his movements stiff and robotic but still without purpose. What is wrong with him?

"Come on." I climb down the stairs, Yusei in hot pursuit, and run towards the building. What am I going to find when I get there? Is Evan going to attack me again? Would he attack Yusei if he was given the opportunity?

As we grow closer, I suddenly feel an overwhelmingly familiar presence—a messy tangle of garbled radio thoughts.

"No," I whisper. "No no no no no no."

"Silvan?" Yusei asks as I climb the stairs. "What's wrong?"

Oh God please don't let it be him. Please let him not have survived. Please please please.

I come up into a room with a half broken window and a view of Aki's duel. Evan stands like a soldier by the window, with his arms folded behind his back. Standing directly in front of the window is one of my worst nightmares personified. Divine.

With his dirty trench and the horrific scar peeling down the right side of his face, he looks like a human nightmare.

He smiles, almost in content, when he sees me. "Hello, Silvan."

I swallow a thick lump in my throat. "Hello, Divine. You're alive after all."

"Yes, I am. I didn't think you'd be sly enough to break your brother out of Arcadia. Perhaps I underestimated your abilities. And I probably should've expected you to be friends with Yusei Fudo—you've both been quite the nuisances when it comes to controlling Aki."

"Why are you here?" I say between bared teeth.

"Well," he scoffs. "Why do you think? These damned Dark Signers destroyed my movement, permanently scarred me, and have forced me to start all over again. Though, I believe I should've expected that you'd pull your little prison break."

"That doesn't answer the fucking question."

"But I believe it does! I currently have complete mind control over Aki and your brother. I plan on adding you to that lineup before we leave this wretched place."

Yusei takes a step in front of me, pushing me directly behind him. "Aki is a changed person now—she doesn't destroy things anymore. She and Evan won't be under your influence for long. And if you want Silvan, you're going to have to go through me."

"I'm not afraid of you," Divine laughs. "You Signers are ridiculous and unnecessary. Aki is the only one of you worth paying attention to, and if Silvan is beside her, they'll be practically unstoppable."

"Do you really think I'm going to let you just control people's hearts?"

"Once someone is in my hands, they'll be at my mercy," Divine remarks cooly. "Regardless of who they are."

He's wrong. They're stronger than he is. I'm stronger than he is.

"It's quite simple, really. Once I place a stimulus on their weakness, they'll simply move the way I want them to. Aki's loneliness was the perfect trigger, as was Evan's blind desire to protect his sister." Divine eyes me. Yusei blocks my body off with his, and I can see him watching Divine's snake eyes. "I wonder what your weakness could be... Though I seem to have an idea." He flicks his hand and suddenly Yusei flies towards the wall to our left.

"Leave him alone!" I exclaim, moving my body so that I'm the one standing in front of him. I feel a faint burning sensation in the right of my waist—an echo from Yusei's injury from his duel with Kiryu, resurfacing because of Divine. "He has nothing to do with this!"

"Oh, but I think he does," Divine croons. "I've finally found your weakness!"

There's nothing wrong with caring about your friends. Asshole. "And I'm going to find yours!" The rest of the window behind Divine shatters, the shards of glass deliberately searching him out. He redirects them towards an opposite wall and sort of laughs.

"After your frequent habit of getting under my skin, it's a bit refreshing to see your anger," he says. "Show me more!"

"Go fuck yourself," I retort. Yusei pulls himself up and a sphere of fire forms in Divine's hand. I materialize as much water as I can out of the air and use it to catch the ball when he throws it. The fire turns the water back into steam, which I pull back into liquid water and use to freeze Divine's shoes to the floor.

I pull Yusei out the door, to the crumbling patio outside. I see Misty's Immortal, Ccarayhua not far away. It's too late for us to turn back when I realize that it's a dead end. Evan blocks the doorway and Divine saunters out to us, wiping the soot from his gloves and scraping ice off of the bottom of his expensive-looking shoes.

Bás warned me that I'd have to decide the destiny of two people today. My brother and a close friend: Aki. I can't just let Divine take over them—that can't be their fate. But what am I supposed to do? Bás never told me anything about breaking into people's heads. Maybe the next best thing would be convincing them to break out?

I hold my hands up in front of me. "Evan. It's me, Silvan. I'm your sister, remember?"

"He can't hear you," Divine remarks in a singsong-y tone.

"Remember me, Evan? I'm your stupid little sister that always got mud on her shoes and insisted she wouldn't eat uncooked carrots and hid your cards in books all around Martha's house. Remember when you'd scold me for dancing in the rain and climbing the trees outside and wandering unsupervised into the sections of town run by duel gangs? I'm the nerdy, book-smart little bug that always got on your nerves when I'd specify something? Remember?"

His eyes show no recognition. I know he can fight this—he's been struggling to fight Divine for seven years.

"Evan, remember when we were ten and you wanted so badly to keep me out of trouble that you literally gave up your entire life so that I wouldn't have to? Remember when you told me that you weren't going to give up on trying to escape, either? You spent your growing years looking for ways to outsmart people, Ev, and I know you can get out of this. Please, just listen to me!"

"Resisting is futile, though your blind optimism is sort of amusing," Divine croons.

"Evan," I try again. "Listen to me, Evan." I stretch my focus out to his mind and the strange circle of protection that's been put up. "You're my brother, Evan—you're literally my other half. I know you can hear me and I know you can snap out of this."

_Silvan._

_Evan_, I Kelt.

His eyes begin to fade from the hazy stare, back to their clear cloudless blue. _Silvan?_

_Run._

_But what about—_

_I don't care, Evan, just run!_

He stays in his position for a moment, and then in a split second lapses out of it and sprints full speed out of the broken building. As he leaves, I feel a powerful, burning anger building up in my stomach. He's changed my emotion—for once, to something I can truly use.

In an instant, the soot on Divine's gloves reignites into high yellow flames. He peels them off quickly tosses them aside, scowling. "You forget that I can regain control over him at any moment."

"If you try anything else, I'll freeze you to death where you stand," I threaten.

"Yes, since I'm _so_ frightened of the little Satellite whose weaknesses are her _emotions_. I wonder how easily you break, Yusei." He starts towards us and I cause the earth to erupt into a violent earthquake. I hold onto Yusei so we won't lose our footing and the roof of the building before us suddenly falls in. Divine stumbles and grimaces as he tries to stay on his feet.

I don't know what to do now—I have to free Aki, but I also need to stand between Divine and Yusei. He could hold his own against a regular person, but Divine is no regular person. I'm not even convinced he's a human being.

_I have an idea, _Yusei Kelts_, to free Aki._

_If it puts you in danger, I don't care what it is—the answer is no._

_The only reason the Dark Signers fight is because they think they want revenge. Remember Bommer? He didn't want to fight when he found out the Dark Signers destroyed his village._

I let the earthquake continue to roll through the ground._ Where are you going with this? _

_Misty thinks that Aki killed her brother, Toby. I'm half-convinced that Divine was the one to kill him. If we get him to admit that and I record it off of my duel disk, maybe Misty will stop fighting Aki and start fighting Divine._

_Breaking his focus could break his control... _Just like me._ It's worth a shot..._

I pull the reins back on my focus, stopping the earthquake and sending me and Yusei crashing to the ground.

I pull my spell book out of my back pocket as I get up. "Do you recognize this, Divine?"

He glares sharply. "Where did you get that?"

"Remember when you put books out to try and get my brother to think he was ahead of you? Well, this wandered into his possession and now it's mine."

He scoffs. "Seria must have taken pity on the two of you and left out more than she should have... It doesn't matter—the things in that book are nonsense."

"I bet you think a lot of things you stuffed into your study were nonsense. Sort of like half of those files I found in your file cabinet." I decide to lie a little. "I just so happened to have stumble across one on Toby Lola, that Dark Signer's little brother. You killed him, didn't you? You caused her to become the way she is?"

Divine sort of laughs. "Does it matter much? In the end, this Dark Signer is no match for Aki at her strongest. She's so pathetic for going dark after something as ridiculous as that."

"I don't know if you're familiar with familial affection, but siblings usually do anything for each other," I quip. "That's sort of the reason you got my brother in the first place."

Yusei steps out from behind me, his hand on his duel disk. "Did you kill Toby and pin his murder on Aki?"

Divine stares uncaringly at the battlefield, where Misty and Aki appear to be in a deadlock. "On occasion, when a psychic duelist wanted to join Arcadia, they would go through a series of experiments to test their abilities and see if they were worthy of assimilating into the movement. One of the experiments consisted of a device that would create a powerful wave of electricity."

I shiver as I think of the dormant sensor still in my brother's leg.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Lola was unable to withstand the procedure and died as a result. His life wasn't much use to me anyways, since he couldn't live up to expectations, but that's all right—I have Aki and once you've crossed over, I won't need anyone else." He flicks his hand again and Yusei, unprotected, sails off of the ground and over the edge of the patio. I'm too far to catch him with my hands, but I do use my frightened energy to muster up a wind and push him closer to the concrete outcropping. He catches himself on the ledge and hangs there, while Divine gathers a sphere of fire in both of his hands. "Now, Silvan, don't be difficult."

"Did you get that, Yusei?" I ask warily.

He laughs, despite being a fall away from being seriously injured for the third time tonight. "Yeah, I got it."

"What are you talking about?" Divine scoffs.

"You probably didn't know this, but since we live in Satellite, we have to make a lot of things—we made our duel disks, and mine just so happens to have a setting that can record and broadcast those recordings."

I pull him up off of the ledge. "I.E., you sort of just confessed to killing Misty's brother and she totally heard you."

A piercing scream of absolute rage echoes from down on the battlefield. I turn and see Misty staring up at us, tears rushing down her face.

"Oh, the two of you are _so_ clever," Divine says mockingly. "This doesn't change anything. By the time the sun comes up, Arcadia will be reborn with you and Aki at the wheel." He raises his hand again, probably to toss Yusei somewhere else, and I throw open the pages of my spell book.

"_Talisman, múscail agus a dhéanamh ar mo tairisceana!_" My mark shimmers and brightens. I feel a burning on my back, probably the sigil of the Crimson Dragon finding its way over my shoulder blades. Fire flares up around Divine's discarded gloves and droplets of water materialize in the air. A wind pushes Divine back until he hits the wall of the building—a very fitting revenge for me, actually.

"You don't get it, do you Divine?" I ask. "You've spent your life making this plan to inadvertently control me through my connections to other people. You've tried influencing my friends, trapping my brother, and hurting people I care about. You thought you'd thought of everything, but you left out one crucial variable: I don't care what you do; I will not be controlled."

I feel the proudest I've ever felt when his self-imposed mask breaks and fear spreads across his face.

Suddenly, Ccarayhua comes out of nowhere, its huge green eyes glaring down on us. I prepare myself to fend off an Earthbound Immortal, when its tongue shoots out and wraps around Divine. He yells as the monster sucks him into its mouth, adding him to its collection of tribute souls.

"Uh," I stutter. "Whoa!"

"I guess he's gone now," Yusei remarks.

"Did he hurt you?" I ask.

"I'm fine," he says. "I told you I'd be there the whole time."

"You know when you insist on being present for everything, you also constantly insist on worrying the crap out of me."

"Am I really your weakness?" He asks suspiciously.

"No, I don't think so," I say. "As much as you continuously concern me, you don't bring me down. You make me stronger."

The corners of his mouth pull up in a warm smile.

"Silvan!" Evan, down below the structure, waves his hands at us. "You'd better come see this!"

Yusei and I run out of the building and down to the ground, where Evan is looking through the geoglyph. It looks like Aki has snapped out of it, but her bangs are billowing over her eyes—did Divine take her hairpin?

Almost like he was cued to, Evan hands me Aki's pin. "I found this after the big lizard ate Divine."

"Thanks," I say, ignoring the burn of the metal. I'm dimly reminded of the cuffs Divine made me wear when I first got to Arcadia. It seems like such a long time ago, but really it's only been like a week. "What's happening in there?"

"Misty tried to forfeit, but something took over her and she continued dueling," Evan answers. "I think it's Aki's turn now."

I peer through the fire. Aki looks like she's drawing a card for her turn. I see Copy Plant and Dark Verger on her field. "I activate Copy Plant's special ability, allowing me to copy Dark Verger's level of 2! Next, I summon Hedge Guard and activate Shining Rebirth—this card will allow me to tune all three of my monsters together and summon back Black Rose Dragon from my Graveyard!"

Wind whips my hair around as Black Rose Dragon's familiar thorns throw up a storm of concrete chunks and rose petals. Evan shifts nervously next to me. "I really hate that thing."

I scoff, wondering what experience he's had, and turn my attention back to Aki.

"I activate Black Rose Dragon's special ability, which allows me to clear the field!"

"Not so fast," Misty tells her, her voice a terrifying triple bass that I remember from Crow's bout with Bommer. "I activate Doom Gazer! This inflicts 300 damage to you for every card destroyed!"

"I'll activate Nature's Reflection!" Aki shoots back. "This redirects any damage I take back to you!"

I count all the cards I can see and do the math in my head—seven cards, which means 2100 life points gone. I suppose that takes away the rest of Misty's life points, because the geoglyph begins to extinguish and she falls, fading away into dust.

"Aki!" I shout, running over the line of the geoglyph. "You did it!"

"I couldn't save Misty, though," she says sadly. "And Divine... Did he get away?"

"Hey," I say. "Misty will come back. I promise. And Divine? He's way gone. Ccarayhua sucked him in. We're free, Aki. No more Arcadia." I hand her the hairpin and she smiles gently before rolling her hair back up.

Rua and Ruka come running up, Trudge and Mikage in hot pursuit. "Hurry and get the control tower down!"

"Right." Aki moves towards the tower across from us, when suddenly the ground starts to violently shake.

I feel an overwhelming sense of peace settle over me, and I turn to Evan, who's glaring pointedly at me.

"It's not me!" I exclaim.

Out of nowhere, I see Jack and Crow coming from another direction. "Guys!" Crow shouts.

"What?" Yusei asks.

Jack points up to the sky in the distance, where I see a huge geoglyph of what looks like a condor.

"A-Another Dark Signer?" I stutter.

"I don't know."

Another earthquake rocks through the earth. I stumble into Evan, who stays upright like a brick wall.

"U-Uh!" Rua exclaims, pointing speechlessly behind us. In the distance, I see a huge dragon-shaped monster with glowing red eyes that looks like it's made of black tar.

"Is that supposed to be the King of Hell?" I say.

"Does that mean we failed?" Aki asks in a small voice.

"We can't have," Jack protests. "It isn't sunrise yet!"

"He's right—we have to find a way to stop this," Yusei adds.

"What the hell," I say. A fierce burn crawls over my shoulders, and the red sigils come all over my body. Around me, the rest of the Signers' marks light up. My mark, for some reason, remains green, and shoots a long beam of light out into the distance. When the light comes back, it takes the form of a large black crow. "Bás!"

_Yes, that's been established,_ he replies as he lands on my shoulder. _You must hurry. Time is running out._

"I could use a little direction!" I exclaim.

"Silvan?" Crow asks in confusion. "What the fuck?"

I groan. "Bás, my friends don't speak Celtic. How are they supposed to know what you want to do?"

_I am not here to guide them—I am here to guide you upon Morrigan's request. _

"That's helpful," I retort.

Thunder cracks over us, and Bás begins to fidget. His talons grip my shoulder and draw blood, but I'm not really that bothered. It's not like I haven't been bleeding a bunch already. _Be prepared._

"Be prepared? What does that mean?"

The dark clouds from Aki's duel with Misty gradually begin to part, until they're wide enough for a gigantic red dragon to twist through.

_The Crimson Dragon,_ Bás remarks. _Here is where your final battle starts._

"Final battle?" I ask.

The Crimson Dragon lets out a primal roar, and my marks begin to glow brighter until the light is bright enough to engulf all of us. When the light fades, we're standing inside of Director Goodwin's estate and I'm clad in the same tunic and circlet I wore in the Spirit World. Nobody questions it—they just sort of stare ahead, where Goodwin's home has been smashed by the stairway from the room under the house.

Our duel runners are lined up behind us—Bás is perched on the handlebars of mine. I'm going to ask him what's happening, when I hear Goodwin himself shouting down from the top of the stairway. "Welcome back, everyone! Congratulations on defeating the Dark Signers, though it is unfortunate that you were unable to seal the gates of the Underworld!"

I stare behind us, where the King of Hell is trudging towards this location in a slow march. Yusei sees it, too, and shouts up to Goodwin. "Why is the King of Hell coming here?"

"This stairway is the place meant for the Divine Ritual!" Goodwin replies. "The Crimson Dragon has brought you here for this reason, as well!" He holds up a metal canister—I see a human arm inside.

"What is that?" I ask warily.

"It's the mark of the fifth Signer," Yusei answers, sounding displeased. "Rudger severed his arm when he decided he'd be dark instead of one of us."

What is he doing with it?

It's almost like Yusei very ironically reads my mind, because the next thing he says is, "What are you doing with it?"

With a smooth laugh, Goodwin sets the canister down and turns. Burned into his back, like the Crimson Dragon mark over my shoulder blades, is the dark mark of a condor.

"Goodwin... Is the last Dark Signer?" I whisper.

_Humanity can be corrupted and deceitful, can't it? _Bás asks from behind me.

Goodwin's jacket and shirt suddenly rip to shreds as his body expands, making him look like a prize fighter. Then he pulls off his right arm, which appears to be mechanical, and brings Rudger's severed arm out of its container before pressing it onto the stump of his shoulder. A screeching pain runs through the mark on my back like a bolt of lightning, and I hear the Crimson Dragon roar like it's in pain.

"What are you doing?" I exclaim.

"With the power of both the Crimson Dragon and the Earthbound Immortals, I will become the Ultimate God!"

_Humans are so pretentious, _Bás chimes, unimpressed.

"Wait," Rua says slowly. "So Goodwin was the bad guy all along?"

"So it seems," Mikage replies thinly.

Goodwin raises his arm and another earthquake pushes through the ground; the stairway moves higher into the air.

_This isn't good_, I Kelt.

Everyone answers me this time. _No it isn't. _

* * *

**We're about two chapters away from the end of Act I! That was fast! For all of you who've been riding with me from the very beginning, you have my everlasting love and gratitude. If you've joined up recently, I love you all the same. **

**Thanks for reading! **

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	19. Bonds

**Chapter 19! Let's start it up! Enjoy!**

* * *

Lightning brightens the sky as we retreat from Goodwin's mansion. The stairway continues to rise and I continue to lose my patience with Bás.

_That human aims to sacrifice the Signers to the King of Hell as a way to control it,_ Bás explains. _It is an old ritual sometimes used by those capable of black magic, though in those times the rituals were performed via faerie circles or special concoctions. _

"Okay? Fairies and potions, that's cool. What is he going to do?"

_I expect he will require you to ride your motorcycles on a track and utilize the dormant abilities within your dragon cards._

"You could just say 'Turbo Duel,'" I mumble.

_Whatever you decide to refer to it as. _

"What's the damage, Silvan?" Yusei asks.

"Bás says Goodwin is trying to perform a ritual that will sacrifice the Signers to control that huge freaking slime monster coming from Satellite," I reply. "He wants to do it through a Turbo Duel."

"That's ironic," Crow scoffs. "Didn't this asshole send you guys to beat Dark Signers, anyways?"

Yusei exchanges a look with Jack, Aki, and Ruka. Then he looks back at me. "Ask him if accepting and winning will cause the King of Hell to disappear."

"Bás," I say lightly, "if the Signers participate in the ritual and prevent Goodwin from going completely through with it, will the King of Hell disappear?"

_I believe so, but only if they win. If they end up losing, the four of them will be sacrificed to the Underworld and you may very well cease to exist. _

"Oh, great, so my life is on the line now, too. Best day of my life right now." I turn back to my friends. "He says it will."

"I'm in," Jack says immediately. "I mean, we get sacrificed if we lose and everyone else will die if we don't do anything, so what choice do we have?"

Aki shifts awkwardly in the dust.

_It's okay that you can't Turbo Duel,_ I Kelt.

_I feel bad, though.._. She pauses. _It's weird, having you in my head like this._

_I know. I haven't really gotten used to it, myself. You're reacting pretty well to it, though._

_I heard you faintly when Divine had me under his control. I guess I sort of had the time to let it sink in then. Is there a name for this?_

_Kelting_, I answer. _I can do it with all of you, I think. Originally, it was just Yusei—now I can suddenly connect to you, Jack, and Ruka._

_That's actually kind of nifty._

"I'm in, too," Crow chimes. "I'm not a Signer, but I'm not going to sit back and watch when you guys could use more help."

I'm going to open my mouth, but I think Bás knows where I'm going before I get there and stops me. _You are not meant to fight in this battle. Your fight lies in the future. Here, your destiny is only to be a guiding hand. Choose what you say next carefully._

I exhale. I'm not allowed to fight? That sucks. What do I do then?

"Are you going to come too, Sil?" Crow asks.

"I'll come, but I won't duel," I say. "Apparently, it's not my destiny to chip in that way. I'll be there in case anything bad happens."

"If that's what you want to do," Yusei tells me.

"Okay, so we know our plan of attack," Crow remarks. "How are we supposed to get up to that altar?"

Silence falls over us, the only noise the slow grinding of rock as the stairway continues to rise, until Bás breaks the quiet with a loud string of squawks. _Problem solve, clever girl._

"You keep telling me that," I groan. "It's like you expect me to get good at 'problem solving' but you really just keep confusing me."

_It's exactly what it sounds like, Silvan—solve the problem. When you are up on that altar, I will not be there to give you all the answers. In the future, I may not be there to tell you what to do either. _

"You barely tell me what to do anyways," I mumble. Solve the problem? Damn. How am I supposed to get my friends up to a super tall sacrificial altar?

I look over the field around the altar, complete with the geoglyph burning up the grass in the shape of a condor.

"Wait!" I exclaim, remembering the rising and falling of the fire. "The geoglyph!"

"What about the geoglyph?" Jack retorts.

"Maybe I could manipulate it, or something," I say. "Evan—"

"Right," he interrupts. "Got it. I'll piss you off. Just don't go overboard."

In a split second, I feel so utterly outraged that I want to burst into flames myself. I angle myself towards the geoglyph and Bás sails off of my shoulder, presumably to give me some space. There's a tugging somewhere in the back of my mind that pulls almost uncomfortably upwards. I keep a firm hold on the anger Evan imposed on me. Slowly, the geoglyph begins to tilt down towards the ground until the fire flares out and touches the stones. It's become sort of a road, and I remember that the fire is solid enough to walk or ride on.

He flies back over to me and lands on my outstretched arm. _See? You can do it. _

"Yeah, Bás, whatever," I say. "Will you stay with my friends down here and protect them?"

_I will do what I can for them. Good luck, Silvan._ He glides away and lands on Ruka, who stares at him with a startled expression.

"He's going to stay and watch over you guys," I tell her. "Just assume that whatever he says is really sarcastic and cryptic and hard to understand."

"A-All right," she replies.

"Let's go, you guys," Yusei tells us. I retrieve my duel runner from the line before us and roll it behind Crow, Jack, and Yusei. "Goodwin! We'll participate in your ritual!"

"Splendid!" He calls. "Will all four of you be facing me?"

"Just the three," I reply. "I'm here to make sure you don't pull anything funny."

"You don't trust me?" Goodwin retorts. "I suppose it doesn't matter. I will prevail over you all in the end."

"What the fuck ever," I grumble. The sky turns violet as someone activates Speed World and I follow the guys up the geoglyph, watching the flames flicker past us as we go.

The counter on my duel runner's screen sets itself to the duel, showing the three of my friends in comparison to Goodwin. It looks like he's tripled his LP to 12,000 since he's dueling three people at a time, and even though it's fair it seems sort of lame.

_Be careful, _I Kelt as a reminder.

_We will,_ Yusei answers.

_This is so fucking weird, _Jack answers.

_Get used to it_, I reply.

Crow, who I don't think can hear me, speeds ahead of the rest of us and takes the first turn after drawing his hand. "I summon Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield in attack mode! Since I have a Blackwing on my field, I can also summon up Blackwing - Bora the Spear! Then I'll end my turn with a face down."

Crow is setting up his defenses, since no one can attack first. He's being safe. Jack draws his hand, taking the next turn. "I summon Mad Archfiend in attack mode! Then I place one card face down and end my turn!"

Jack went quickly, like he usually does. I suspect that he doesn't have the hand to make a big move, at least not until his next turn.

Yusei goes third, drawing his hand and his respective card for the turn, but he doesn't immediately make any moves. Instead, he gazes up at the altar. "Hey, as long as you're so convinced that we won't exist after today, would you mind answering something for me? Why did you become a Dark Signer?"

Goodwin sort of chuckles. "The first place of battle just so happened to be the body of my brother, Rudger."

_Rudger was Goodwin's brother? _I Kelt.

_You learn something new every day,_ Yusei returns.

"The power of both a Signer and a Dark Signer began to take over his body, and eventually he fell out to the darkness. My brother believed that by throwing away his arm bearing the Signer's mark and bequeathing it to me, fate would take care of everything else."

I hate listening to people talk about fate like they own it. I'm getting really touchy about it since discovering that fate is supposed to be my forte and no one else should be messing with it. Though, I guess fate really did take care of itself after he changed it—there's got to always be a plan B in case something goes wrong, right?

"He told me that the Signers would someday appear, and I had to gather them together and use them to defeat him. I listened to him and left, while he stayed and triggered Zero Reverse."

So Goodwin was part of his brother's fate-changing escapade, huh?

"And so, I obeyed the path fate had related to me and gathered the four of you together. But, going along that path made me realize something."

I scoff under my breath. This should be good.

"Not very long ago, I participated in a duel against my brother and lost on purpose. When he inquired why I had purposely fallen to him, I told him that there was no possible way he could win against you. Our destinies would forever remain the same, and 5,000 years from now, ten others would bear the same destiny. So, I revealed it to be my destiny to break the cycle, and that I would overcome fate and possess two gods in order to recreate this world into one where this conflict will never arise again."

"Can I give you a quick lesson on something?" I call. "Fate isn't easily changed—in fact, it's been set in stone since the dawn of time and only rarely is it changed. Somehow, Rudger got the opportunity to change it, and here we are now. I was changed to become sort of an imperfect version of myself, but that doesn't mean I can't still do my job—if you're going to make an attempt to change fate again, you're going to have to get through me, and I promise you that I can break more than just windows!"

"Your affiliation with the Signers has always intrigued me. I don't know what you are, nor do I really care. No matter what you say, I know that fate is steering us towards a new world, one created by me with the help of the Crimson Dragon and the Earthbound Immortals!"

"Are you kidding?" Crow exclaims. "You know how badly your selfish wishes have affected everyone?"

"You're delusional, Goodwin!" Jack adds. "We're not letting you just do what you want!"

"Besides, it isn't a god's power that tears down and builds up destiny," Yusei calls. "It's us—human beings, and it's what we create by gathering and fighting for something!"

"Pitiful," Goodwin remarks.

Yusei ignores him, finally taking his turn. "I summon Max Warrior in attack mode—then I place one card face down and end my turn."

I watch Goodwin raise his arm. "When monsters exist only on my opponents' field, I can summon Oracle of the Sun! I'll then normal summon Fire Ant Ascator—by tuning Oracle of the Sun with Fire Ant Ascator, I'm able to synchro summon Sun Dragon Inti!"

The mark on my back pulsates, and a huge four-headed dragon with a sun carving for a body suddenly appears. The Crimson Dragon is in pain again from Goodwin's use of its power.

"Now, by removing Fire Ant Ascator from my Graveyard, I can special summon Weeping Idol. By paying 1000 of my life points, I can also summon the Dark tuner, Dark Goddess Witaka!"

He's pulling two synchro summons on his first turn—one of them is Dark. I hope the guys have something up their sleeves.

"I tune Weeping Idol with Dark Goddess Witaka to synchro summon Moon Dragon Quilla!"

On the opposite side of Sun Dragon Inti, a second four-headed dragon with a carved moon for a body rises onto the field. The Crimson Dragon on my back continues to blaze.

"Now, I place two cards face down and end my turn. As per the effect of Moon Dragon Quilla, it will destroy itself on my end phase."

The number of Speed Counters increases to 4 as Crow starts his turn. We round a bend in the condor glyph. "I activate the Speed Spell - Tune Up 123! This will raise Mistral's level based on the roll of a dice!"

A picture of a die shows up on my screen. As I watch it roll, I wonder if I could ever play with chance like that. It stops on 2, which is enough to raise Mistral's level from 1 to 3.

"Now I tune Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield with Blackwing - Bora the Spear in order to synchro summon Blackwing Armor Master!"

I remember Armor Master's effect with the Wedge counter from his duel with Bommer. I think Crow plans to use it against Sun Dragon Inti.

"When I have one Blackwing already on my field, I can special summon one more—Blackwing - Elphin the Raven! Next, Armor Master, attack Sun Dragon Inti!"

Armor Master flies close to the idol and buries a wooden wedge into its face. On my duel screen, the monster's ATK drops to 0 and Armor Master survives due to its secondary effect.

"Now, Elphin the Raven, destroy Sun Dragon Inti!"

I watch it glide into the dragon, sending slash marks across the idol body and causing the monster to explode. On my duel screen, Goodwin's LP falls to 8800 and his Speed Counters drop to 2.

Moon Dragon Quilla suddenly surfaces on the field, probably due to its effect. I bet since one is the sun and the other is the moon, the destruction of one will bring about the other. Does that mean destroying Quilla will bring back Inti? God, I hope not.

Goodwin sort of chuckles, and it echoes down to us. "Retaliating against a god is an unforgivable offense, Crow. The man from your Daedalus Bridge legend learned this by losing his left arm."

What does that mean?

"I activate the effect of Sun Dragon Inti from the Grave; I can destroy a monster that just attacked it and deal its owner damage equal to its ATK."

A red light filters onto the field, slamming forcefully down onto Crow's duel runner. On my screen, his LP drops to 1800 and his Speed Counters reduce to 2.

"Let me tell you something, Crow," Goodwin says almost contentedly. "The legendary man you believe so strongly in was a completely normal, useless human being. In order to change fate, you must become a god and surpass the humans you walk among."

"Don't listen to that crap!" I call. "People aren't meant to change fate, but that doesn't make them useless! That legend just proves it—what that guy did directed the fate of hundreds of Satellites and made them believe that they were more than people made them out to be."

"Raising people's spirits does not entail changing their fates," Goodwin scoffs. "Only gods can do that!" He raises an arm and my body suddenly lights up in red sigils. The sigil on my back burns so hot that my vision blurs for a second and I almost lose control of my duel runner.

_Are you okay?_ Yusei and Jack Kelt simultaneously.

_I'm fine. Goodwin is drawing power from the Crimson Dragon and I can feel him hurting it_.

Suddenly I see the marks disappear from Yusei and Jack's forearms. My shoulder blades blister and burn. Up on the altar, I can see the same sigil on my back forming on Goodwin's chest. It flickers, like I feel mine doing, and I suspect that he's fighting to draw all of its power—even mine.

I grip the accelerators on my duel runner to keep myself steady. Bás said that I'm only supposed to be a guide during this fight, but my power is now directly linked to Goodwin's—he's trying to take it from me. Maybe here, I'm also supposed to guide Goodwin to the path he should've taken in the beginning.

"I place two cards face down and end my turn," Crow decides.

I watch Jack pull ahead of Crow to take his turn, his Speed Counters bumping up to 5. "I'll start by setting a card face down. Then, I summon Magic Hole Golem in defense mode! Next, by activating Magic Hole Golem's special effect, I can halve the attack of Mad Archfiend and send him to attack you directly!"

Mad Archfiend's ATK lowers to 900 and it springs forward, showering pieces of bone onto Goodwin. His LP lowers to 6900, and Crow flips a card over.

"I activate Shadow Dance! When damage was just dealt to our opponent, I can dish out 1000 more points to you!"

A black light shines on the top of the altar; Goodwin's life on my duel screen falls to 5900. I focus on the red glow all over me, trying to keep it there as long as I possibly can.

"I'll activate my face down," Yusei decides. "Rising Rush—this allows me to special summon Junk Synchron to the field."

"I'll end my turn there," Jack says. "Take it away, Yusei!"

"With pleasure!" He draws for his turn and begins. "I'll tune Junk Synchron with Max Warrior in order to synchro summon Junk Archer!"

Good old Junk Archer—I know that Yusei is going to utilize its effect to remove Quilla from play and attack Goodwin directly. That's always been a good strategy, yet I wonder if Goodwin will retaliate with something worse.

"Due to Junk Archer's special effect, I'm allowed to select one monster on your field and remove it from play for this turn." Junk Archer fires an arrow, which embeds itself into Moon Dragon Quilla's idol body. A multicolored light envelops it, removing it from the field. "Then, I'm allowed to attack again!"

Junk Archer goes in for the direct attack, but like I feared, Goodwin flips over a face down. "I activate Offering to the Immortals. This will allow me to negate your attack and summon two Ceremonial Tokens, as well as add one Earthbound Immortal to my hand!"

Oh, shit. Goodwin has an Immortal too? I should've expected that.

Yusei doesn't react beyond setting two cards face down and throwing the field to Goodwin.

Moon Dragon Quilla returns to the field as per Junk Archer's effect, and Goodwin draws for his turn. "By releasing my Ceremonial Tokens, I can summon to the field Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca!"

A flash of violet light brightens the sky; I sense souls being sucked into the monster and making it flourish into a giant purple condor.

For some reason, it shows on my duel screen that Wiraquocha Rasca only has 1 ATK. That worries me, but the sudden roar of the King of Hell in the distance worries me more.

A billion specks of black begin to fly towards us at high speed, reminding me of Bás until I realize that they're large black condors. I watch them circle the duel circuit until a few of them dive towards us.

A line of thorns suddenly spears a number of the condors, and I spot Black Rose Dragon somewhere below us with its sharp tendrils twisting out behind it. Ancient Fairy Dragon blasts a bunch more of the sky with radiant balls of bright energy. Even Bás, the largest bird currently in the sky, catches a condor in his claws and sends it spiraling towards the ground before it explodes into a pile of black dust.

Goodwin scoffs at us. "I activate Wiraquocha Rasca's special effect, allowing me to attack one of you directly—I think that I'll attack you, Yusei!"

A condor strikes Crow's duel runner and deviates him off course a little before Bás swoops down and catches the condor. He flies off with the bird squirming in his grip while Crow directs himself back into a straight path. "I activate Life Exchange! This directs your Immortal's attack to me instead!"

Before any of us can say anything, a blast knocks Crow's duel runner off of the geoglyph altogether. I watch his runner glide out over the open air, remembering how long ago we put wings on it and how I'd insisted that they'd never be useful for anything. He flies straight through Moon Dragon Quilla, which destroys it with the help of Life Exchange.

Sun Dragon Inti suddenly appears out of nowhere, which confirms my earlier fear of their exchanging effects.

Crow flips another card. "I activate Blackwing - Bombardment, releasing Blackwing Armor Master—" he lands heavily on the other end of the circuit, taking a massive fall off of his duel runner before he can fully activate the effect of his trap.

"Crow!" I exclaim.

Goodwin laughs as he sets two cards face down.

I tear one of my hands away from the handlebars and reach for my spell book in my tunic pocket while trying to stay on course. "_Ordaímse mo fhoirm a galú cosúil leis na farraigí agus condense i réimsí de mo rogha!_"

My duel runner turns to liquid under me, my body following it, while I envision Crow's face in my mind. I hit the geoglyph feet from him, skidding to a stop and jumping off of my seat so I can tend to him.

I roll the duel runner off of him and pull his body beside me. "You're good, Crow—I'm going to help you."

"How'd you get here so fast?" He laughs, cheerful despite his pain.

"Your inexplicable bad luck draws me to you," I retort. "Here, where does it hurt?"

"In my leg," he complains.

"That's where your duel runner landed," I muse. "Here, give me a sec." I raise my hand over his form. "_Na wounds cneasaigh._"

Red and green lights twist over him, and it strains me to try and heal him because Goodwin is still sapping my power, but I know I can pull out the energy to help.

"What's my LP?" He asks when the light subsides.

"Um," I say. "1."

"1? Are you kidding? I thought I wouldn't survive that!"

"I do recommend you let Jack and Yusei take the rest of the duel, though. You need time to heal completely. Magic can't do everything."

"That's not what the fairytales say," he laments. "Besides, since when were you a part of them?"

"I don't know how long," I say. "Just that I am now. Here, let me help you up onto your duel runner. I'm going to send you back down to the ground in case the geoglyph disappears and you fall, or something."

"Fair enough. Thanks, Sil."

"No problem, Crow." I pull him up off of the ground and assist him in getting comfortably back onto the Blackbird. Then I flip through the pages of the spell book and meld the transfer cast to the apparation cast. "_Aistriú agus a evaporate-liom a sheolann tú amach go dtí an áit ar mo rogha._"

Crow and his duel runner fade away into the air—I watch him reappear down on the ground and Aki and Ruka rush to his aid. Then I climb back onto my duel runner and recast the apparation spell to send me back to Yusei and Jack.

I reappear behind them, in the shadow of Moon Dragon Quilla.

"Is Crow all right?" Yusei calls to me.

"He'll be fine," I return. "I put him back on the ground with Aki and Ruka."

"Good." He draws a card, which makes me think that it's his turn. I turn my attention to my duel screen, where it shows that it's the 10th turn. Yusei has 9 Speed Counters, Jack has 7, and Goodwin has 4. Yusei still has 4000 LP, while Jack has 2500 and Goodwin has 5400. "I'll use Junk Archer to remove Moon Dragon Quilla from play!"

"I activate my face down, Destruct Potion!" Goodwin calls. "This will destroy Moon Dragon Quilla and give me LP equal to its attack, in addition to reviving Sun Dragon Inti! An admirable attempt, Yusei, but it was in vain!"

I can almost feel Yusei's apathy turning to defeat as he ends his turn.

Goodwin draws a card and sees Jack's field open. "Sun Dragon Inti, attack Jack directly!"

Jack flips over a card. "I activate Fiendish Chain! As long as my LP remain over 1000, this card will not only negate your attack, but it also prevents Inti from attacking or being tributed!"

Goodwin sort of tsks. "Jack, need I remind you that people fall into loneliness easily—loneliness is death. Before death, a person thinks about neither his friends nor himself, much less about bonds. When you die, you will fall into death alone."

I don't know what happened between now and my stopping to assist Crow, but it's obviously not doing good things to Jack. I think that mind tricks must run in Rudger's family.

"I activate the effect of Wiraquocha Rasca, reducing your life points to 1!"

With the blast, Jack's life points reduce to 1 as well as leaving him without Fiendish Chain.

"I invite you to feel death before your eyes, Jack," Goodwin croons. "The King of Hell is ready to sacrifice you!"

A blast rips along the geoglyph, towards Jack in particular. When I raise my hand to reach for him, a barrier of green light materializes like a wall between Jack and the blast. I feel a burst of pride; that's the same thing I'd tried to help Martha with, and it hadn't succeeded. Now, it's actually come through.

Although Jack's been spared from the explosion, the momentum still knocks him into the wall of the geoglyph and I skid to a stop to help him.

"You saved me?" He asks as I come towards him.

"Isn't that what friends are supposed to do?" I retort as I help him up. He pulls at his shoulder, which I think has been dislocated by the fall.

"Does this mean you don't hate me anymore?"

"When did I ever hate you?" I ask. I pull his duel runner up off of the road. "I was only disappointed, Jack. I thought you'd lost yourself, but here you are pretty much back as I remember."

"I don't think I can keep fighting," he replies. "My life is down to 1 and my shoulder is killing me. Think you can do some of that magic stuff?"

"I don't know if it'll work on an injury like yours, but I'll try it," I say. I cast the heal spell on him and it seems like his shoulder has navigated itself back into the socket, but he still cringes when the light fades.

"Yeah, I'm definitely not getting back in this. It's all up to Yusei now."

"I'll send you down with Crow and the others," I tell him.

"You have to swear that you're going to protect Yusei," he remarks.

"I wouldn't stay up here for any other reason," I scoff. "And I promise we'll be as careful as possible."

"Good," he grumbles. He anchors himself on his duel runner as I meld the transfer cast with the apparation cast and watch him reappear on the ground. Once I'm sure he's out of danger, I jump back on my duel runner and pursue Yusei.

When I get close enough, my duel screen refreshes and I see that it's the 14th turn, and it's Yusei's. He too is hanging on by 1 life point while Goodwin has around 7900. I pull up beside Yusei, the sigil of the Crimson Dragon still blistering on my back.

_It's just you and me now, _I Kelt.

_My life is in your hands_, he returns, sounding almost amused._ Think you can handle it?_

_I think we'll be all right._

Yusei draws for his turn. "I activate the Speed Spell - Angel Baton, which allows me to discard one card and then draw two more! Next, I summon Debris Dragon and use its effect to summon Sonic Chick from my Graveyard—by tuning Sonic Chick and Debris Dragon with Shield Wing already on my field, I can synchro summon Stardust Dragon!"

The sigil on my back pulses, and for a moment there's a relief from Goodwin's attempts to suck the mark away from me.

"This is as far as you can go," Goodwin points out. "Your dragon's attack is too low."

"Not exactly," Yusei replies. "From here, I can activate the face down Crow had on the field before you took him out of the duel—Blackwing - Bombardment! It can increase the attack of one monster on my field by the attack of Blackwing Armor Master!"

Stardust Dragon's light gets brighter as it glides towards Sun Dragon Inti and takes it out. Like I expect, Yusei activates Victim Sanctuary next to prevent Goodwin from activating Inti's effect from the Grave. His LP falls to 5000, and he's about to summon back Moon Dragon Quilla, when another card comes out of nowhere.

"I'll activate Jack's face down, Conquest of the Supreme Ruler! That'll break your cycle and prevent you from summoning back Moon Dragon Quilla!"

As he ends his turn, Stardust bursts back onto the field in an explosion of white light.

Goodwin draws for his turn. "Maybe you can stop my dragons, but there isn't a way for you to stop my Immortal. All of you Signers will sink into despair and face death alone."

_What a happy thought_, I Kelt.

_I'm going to try something, _Yusei Kelts back_. In case it doesn't work, I might need you to step in._

_Step in how?_

_Catch me if I fall._

_You can count on that._

"Goodwin," Yusei begins, sounding introspective, "have you forgotten your brother?"

He scoffs. "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"I know that you're the man from the Daedalus Bridge legend. You went against fate trying to jump it, but it was to reach your brother, wasn't it?"

"None of that matters. The King of Hell is close, and your life points are at 1. My victory is growing near. I activate the effect of Wiraquocha Rasca, in order to attack you directly!"

_Silvan_. I hear Jack's voice in the back of my mind. _Tell Yusei to activate my rightmost face down._

_Will do_. I pull my connection to Yusei a little tighter. _Jack wants you to activate his rightmost trap._

_So that's why he didn't use it earlier. _The card flips over. "I activate Jack's second face down!"

_Scrubbed Raid_, the card says. It's a continuous trap that can end the Battle Phase by sending a card on the field to the Graveyard.

Goodwin shakily flips a card on his field. "I activate Meteor Prominence! By discarding 2 cards in my hand, I can deal 2000 points of damage to my opponent!"

"I trigger my own face down, Joint Future! By sending one card in my hand to the Graveyard, I can negate the activation of a spell or trap!"

"I activate the second effect of Meteor Prominence! By skipping my next draw phase, I can add it back from my Graveyard to my hand!"

"I guess I'll activate the secondary effect of Joint Future—I can shuffle your negated card back into your deck!"

Goodwin, seeming irritated, ends his turn.

"Do you really want to become a god, Goodwin?" Yusei asks.

Goodwin laughs harshly. "I can't truly become a god until I surpass my brother."

"No, I don't believe that. People have things they never forget—you still care about your brother. I don't think you're trying to defy fate. I think you're trying to go against it with Rudger instead of opposite him. Don't you still have some bond with him?"

Suddenly, the pain from the sigil on my back dissipates and I see a red glow appear back on Yusei's forearm. This time, it's the head birthmark that was on Rudger's severed arm rather than the tail he bore before. Goodwin's stopped sucking power from the Crimson Dragon.

"What's happening?" Goodwin roars.

"The Crimson Dragon has decided on who controls fate now," Yusei tells him.

I feel a different source sucking at my power now, but it isn't hostile. It doesn't want all of it—all it wants is the helping hand. When I decide to release my hold on the mark, I feel the burn disappear from my back and my mark on my arm fade from view. Moments later, they're standing out in green over Yusei's shoulder blades: the sigil of the Crimson Dragon overlapping the mark fate made on me.

_You need those more than I do,_ I Kelt.

He turns and manages a smile in my direction, then draws to take his turn. "Because Stardust Dragon is on my field, I can summon Stardust Xiaolong from my Grave to the field! Then, I normal summon Majestic Dragon and tune it together with Stardust Dragon and Stardust Xiaolong in order to synchro summon Majestic Star Dragon!"

A blinding light shoots over the geoglyph, but for some reason I don't have to close my eyes as we go through it. A brilliant white dragon follows us out of the gale, spreading specks of pure light following it.

Behind us, I know that the King of Hell is nearing the altar. Yusei knows it too, because he makes his next move quickly. "Due to the effect of Majestic Star Dragon, the effect of Wiraquocha Rasca is negated! Next, I activate Synchro Baton; since there are four synchro monsters in our Graveyards, I can multiply Majestic Star Dragon's ATK by 4 and attack you directly!"

A ball of energy forms at the mouth of the white dragon, and the pressure in the air makes my ears pop. It shoots it through Wiraquocha Rasca, causing a huge explosion, and then suddenly takes the form of the Crimson Dragon. Red beams of light shoot out of the clouds and the sigils return to my body as a light overcomes the King of Hell and he fades into a zillion small specks of black dust.

The geoglyph suddenly disappears out from under our duel runners, but the Crimson Dragon comes twisting in our direction and places us safely on the ground.

I can barely think or breathe—a billion things are happening at the same time. Everyone else comes running towards us, cheering and shouting with their forearms aglow and weary smiles on their faces. I'm trapped in a billion different embraces until we all lopsidedly gather into a circle with me and Yusei squashed into the middle.

_You saved the world_, I Kelt.

We_ saved it_, he replies.

People are laughing and crying and shouting joyfully into the hot air because, for once, we've landed in what feels like a happy ending.

Bás, unable to reach my shoulder, lands on my head and ecstatically squawks into the night to the point where I can't even understand what he's saying.

Yusei's got his arms around me and his head's on my shoulder—Crow comes in behind me and Jack spreads his arms over all three of us, followed by Aki, Ruka, Rua, and Evan in the outer circle of our group.

"Fucking hell, you guys," I say once quiet has settled over us all. "Looks like our adventure is over."

"Oh, you think?" Jack retorts. A tired laugh echoes through us.

_Silvan, I believe there's still one thing you must do,_ Bás remarks.

"What?" I exclaim. "The world can continue spinning, we can breathe easy, what else could there possibly be?"

_The altar._

"I'm not even going to ask any more," I retort, staring across from us to the stairway.

I raise my arm towards it and my friends' marks light up around me, including the tail mark that now resides on Crow's forearm. A single jolt pulls through the ground under us as I feel the Crimson Dragon's sigil burning its way across my back.

The stairway begins to sink back into the ground, revealing the clearing sky and the sun that's finally begun to rise.

* * *

**Well, it appears Silvan's first battle is winding down to a close... But there's still one more thing that needs to happen before this section of the story completely ends.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**See ya ;D**

**-Eibon**


	20. Acceptance

_**February 10th — 3 Months Later**_

I stand against the wall, near the front door that slides open to let people in.

Hospitals always smell like death to me, and I don't know why. They're meant to help people and 99% of the time, they save a shit ton of lives. Being inside just makes me cringe for some reason.

"Forest," a voice calls from the hall leading to the elevator. He comes over to shake my hand.

"Saitou," I say lightly. "It's great to see you in good mental health."

"All thanks to you," he replies amiably. "It's a joy to think and speak like a normal person again."

"I can imagine. So, is Evan going to be released today?"

"Yes, I've cleared him to go home with you," Saitou replies. "Bring him back in to take his cast off around the end of March."

"Got it."

Evan comes out around the hall, his hair flopping in his eyes and his eyebrows crinkled as he focuses on moving his crutches. He'll probably ask me to take him for a haircut in a few days.

"Hey, Sil," he grumbles.

I laugh lightly. "You wanted the sensor out, remember?"

"But this cast is so irritating," he complains. "How long do I have to wear it again?"

"Until March."

He groans loudly. Saitou and I share a laugh before we say goodbye and I help Evan wobble outside to my duel runner. "Now I'm going to have to wait until April to train with a duel runner," he complains.

I laugh again. "On the bright side, I'll have enough time to construct something for you to ride on."

"Can I help?"

"You can watch," I tell him. "Remember you're not the best with things that are made of metal."

He scoffs. "Did Zora call and confirm the lease?"

"Yeah, she called this morning. We get to start moving in as soon as possible."

"Awesome. Do we know if Jeiricho and Darragh will be joining us?"

"Yeah, I think they're on board," I reply. "They've been staying with Seria while they look for jobs, and I think they're more than happy to move in with us." I take Evan's crutches and help him onto the back of my duel runner, handing him a spare helmet. "Hold on tight."

We shoot off into the street, towards the estates on the far end of Neo Domino. It's been a couple of months since the Dark Signers ravaged everything, and we're still rebuilding. I cut through the leveled dirt of the Business District, passing through the shadow of the ghost of Arcadia. That place doesn't bother me and Evan anymore.

Aki and her parents live a little farther than that, in a private neighborhood just outside the Tops. We pull in and I see Aki outside with a watering can. She waves. "Hey, Silvan! Evan!"

I pull my helmet off and help Evan off of the back of my duel runner. He takes his crutches from me and together we move towards Aki. "Hey, Aki. How are your roses?"

"The white ones have already bloomed, but I'm waiting on the red ones," she replies. "They always take the longest to open up."

I wave my hand over the leaves of the closest rose bush. The air shimmers, my Trinity flickers, and the red rose buds open like little people pushing aside quilts of petals.

Aki grins at me. "How was your hospital stay, Evan?"

"Irritating," he groans. "I have to wear this cast until March."

"Well," she replies kindly, "at least Dr. Saitou got the sensor out."

"Yeah," I add. "No more worrying about exploding next to the microwave or attracting lightning during a storm." And no more fears of cruel and unusual punishment. He's truly free, now. "So, Aki, we're still on for lunch, but I have to drop by Poppo Time and talk to our new landlord about the ground rules."

"Wow, you found an apartment already?" Aki asks. "It's been great having you stay here. Do you have to leave?"

"It's been great being here, and your folks are so nice, but we do really have to get onto our feet," I tell her. "We can't burden you forever."

"You're no burden," she replies earnestly. "Besides, my dad gets a kick out of you fixing his computer all the time."

I chuckle. "We don't really have much to move, so maybe I'll take our stuff over now and come back later to grab you, Evan. You probably want to sit down between trips."

"That'd be nice. This is a heavy cast."

We trail behind Aki as we enter the house; Mrs. Izayoi is in the kitchen, chopping tomatoes.

"Hello, Silvan. Welcome back, Evan," she says warmly when she sees us. "How are you feeling?"

"Good, thanks," he says, smiling. Aki's mom loves Evan almost more than her own daughter—she thinks he's the most godly young man ever to walk the earth.

Aki puts her watering can down on the granite island. "Do you need any help, Mom?"

"Sure—I'm making pasta. Why don't you put on a pot of water and start boiling the noodles?"

Aki grabs a big steel pot from the rack hanging over the island and goes to the sink to fill it with water. Evan follows me upstairs, to the room we've been sharing for the past couple of months. The Izayois have a pretty big house with a lot of rooms, so it was sort of easy to accommodate us.

Once we're upstairs, Evan sits on his bed and I pull a cardboard box out of the closet; I've been keeping it in there so that I'd have one when Evan and I did get an apartment.

"Do you think we'll move in today?" Evan asks.

"I'll have to check the grounds," I reply. "I don't know if the place already has furniture or not."

"Fair enough." Evan picks at a fraying string on his cast while I take a picture of myself and the guys off of the table between our beds. He glances up to watch me look at it before I put it into the box. "When's the last time you saw them?"

"Probably not since the last night," I remark. "They've all been... Pretty busy."

"Or have you just not reached out to them?"

"No, I have," I sigh. "It's just that Crow's got a new job, Jack's off doing who-knows-what, Kiryu's gone traveling, and Yusei's... _Busy_."

"He's _busy_."

"Yeah, occupied with or concentrating on a particular activity or otherwise prior engagement. _Busy_. I know you know what it means."

"No, I mean, what does _busy_ entail?"

"Well, Goodwin's gone, so Yusei is sort of in charge of the construction on the bridge," I reply. "That'll take up a person's time."

"You haven't Kelted with him? With any of them?"

"Yusei doesn't answer my Kelts much anymore," I miff.

"That's almost hard to believe..."

"How so?" I ask curiously.

He puts his crutches down on the floor and kicks at them with his good leg. "I really wasn't planning on bringing this up until after the Dark Signer stuff blew over—and I guess it has—but, uh... Have you ever really noticed the way he looks at you?"

I scoff. "People look at people, Evan, it's something to help them communicate properly."

"Oh, whatever. It's not worth explaining."

"If you say so. Start passing me your books."

He hands me a few books from under his bed. "There are more in the closet, just don't take the one on top. I'm at the part where Odysseus escapes the Cyclops and it's getting good."

I dig in the closet and hand him _The Odyssey_, which he puts under his pillow like it's some rare treasure.

"If there aren't any in the apartment, I have a feeling that we'll need to get a few bookshelves."

"Can we?" He asks earnestly.

I laugh. "Yeah, we can. Once we put up the money for first month's rent, we'll have to scrape some more together for whatever else we might need. I might even end up going over to Satellite once the bridge is connected for better deals."

"That's smart," he says.

I shake the box. "Anything else?"

"I have my backpack, but that's pretty much it."

I grab it from under his bed and lay it on the top of the books and my photo, closing the cardboard flaps. "I'm going to take this down. I'll be back to give you the damage report in a little while."

He gives me a thumbs up. "Will do. See you in a bit."

I heave the box up into my arms, weighted down by the amount of books inside, and trudge downstairs into the foyer.

"Aki, I'll be back in a while!" I call. I go outside and pull open the back compartment of my duel runner, fitting the box in with my tools. Then I gather my hair against the back of my head and pull my helmet on before loading myself onto the duel runner and taking off.

As far as I recall, the clock tower is situated in one of Neo Domino's main thoroughfares. I cross through a short bridge across an open-faced sewer and onto a dirt pathway trimmed with apartments and shops.

The clock tower is in the center, sort of whitewashed and made of bricks like an old school building. A huge cuckoo clock is mounted to the top of the tower, but it doesn't look like it runs. A sign hanging over the entrance is marked 'Poppo Time Clock.'

I pull up outside and take my helmet off, shaking the static out of my hair. Martha mentioned that she's old friends with the landlady when she told me about this place, so I hope I know how to address what this woman is like. I knock on the open door. "Hello? I'm looking for Zora."

I hear footsteps coming down stairs and sense a quick shimmer of thought that travels in a straight line rather than a billion different directions. I play nervously with my helmet and stand outside the door, waiting to be let inside.

A somewhat middle-aged woman comes down from an upstairs level. She wears a blue smock and gold rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose. "May I help you?"

"My name is Silvan Levine? I talked to you on the phone this morning about my lease?"

"You're Silvan?" She asks. "You sounded a bit older on the phone—you're so young and pretty!"

"Oh, um, thanks?"

"Here, come in. You're very well-mannered for your age."

"I was raised pretty well," is all I say. "I wanted to ask about the ground rules of the place my brother and I will be living in."

"Sure." Zora comes out from the shop and walks across the dirt to a place across the street. I wheel my duel runner along behind her. "You're a duelist, I see."

"That's right," I reply.

"You may get along well with the tenants around the back of the clock tower—three young men who also enjoy that sort of thing."

"Maybe I'll look into them," I reply. Zora leads me down to the apartment, which has a ramp leading down into the main floor. There's a stairwell leading up to a higher floor near the entrance and another stairwell in the back of the room. A long plated window along the far wall shows a view of the harbor to the east.

"Up the main stairwell here is a small sitting room and an attic with a skylight. Down the other way is the basement, which is about the size of this room. Many of the tenants around here are a bit older, so there is a low tolerance for noise and disturbances after 9 PM. Other than that, rent is due at the end of every month, as well as electricity and plumbing."

"Sounds good to me," I tell her. "My brother and I don't really have much to relocate, so I'm thinking we'll move in as soon as we can."

"That sounds lovely," she replies. "Welcome to the neighborhood."

"Thanks," I say. Zora leaves after that, letting me take a look around the place. It looks like there's some furniture already—a coffee table and a couch situated in the center of the floor, a sectioned off portion of the back wall with a larger table and a stove, and a table up in the sitting room. I take my jacket off and lay it across one of the wooden chairs pushed into the dining table.

I peek into the basement, which does have a bed in it, but not much else. Then I take the short trek up the stairs to the attic, which is a medium sized room with a couple of shelves and another bed. The entire ceiling is plated with glass, which must be the skylight Zora mentioned.

It's a nice place, and it was a good deal thanks to Martha. I come back down the stairs just in time to hear someone knock on the door. A person I least expect pokes their head inside. "Hello?"

I feel like I'm not as happy to see him as I should be. "Hi, Yusei."

He comes down the ramp. "I came over here because I heard we were getting new neighbors, but I don't think I expected you to be that new neighbor."

"I wasn't aware you lived here."

"Jack, Crow, and I moved in not too long ago. Probably should've warned you about that," he replies. They must be the "three young men" Zora mentioned. "So, are you and Evan moving in soon?"

"Yeah," I say. "Jeiricho and Darragh are joining us, too."

"One girl in an apartment full of guys. Sounds safe."

I wheel my duel runner into the center of the concrete floor just in front of the coffee table. "Correction: one girl, her buff, psychic, six foot three brother, and two friends."

He smiles a little. "So, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing, really," I say. "I got a doctor out of a mental asylum and got him to take the lightning rod out of Evan's leg... Now he has a cast on until March. We've been staying with Aki's family and I'm thinking about beginning a business where people call me and ask me to fix their shit."

"You're sort of forgetting something," he says.

"Am I?"

"Yes? It is the 10th of February, isn't it? Could you possibly be forgetting your official turn over into an adult? Does the word 'birthday' ring any bells?"

"I'm not an official adult until I'm 21," I retort. "And thanks for remembering that we've officially passed those uncomfortable few months where you're technically a year older than me."

"It's not that I didn't remember," he says. "It was sort of wondering if I'd see you today."

"Or any day," I mumble.

"What does that mean?"

I pull open the back compartment of my duel runner and take out the box and my tools. "It doesn't mean anything. How are you?"

"Fine?" He says, almost in confusion. "Though I get the sense that you aren't."

"I am fine," I protest, pulling books out of the box.

Yusei takes my photograph out from the bottom of the box and looks at it for a long time. "Do you need any help?"

"No," I mumble, sitting down on my duel runner and opening the front panel.

He comes around next to me. _You work when you're upset. What are you thinking?_

"Since when are you the mind reader?" I ask.

_Why aren't you answering me?_

_Because you never Kelt to me anymore._

"Are you mad at me, or something?"

"I don't know."

_You're mad at me. Why?_

I pick at a scab on my arm from the glass that cut me during my duel with Evan—it feels like so long ago. "I don't know."

"What did I do wrong?"

"You didn't do anything..."

He kneels down and looks up at me earnestly through his dreaming navy eyes. "So why are you angry?"

"Are we drifting apart as friends, Yusei?"

"What? Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"I haven't seen any of you in what feels like forever. Crow got a job, Jack doesn't take my calls, Kiryu is nowhere to be found even though I know he's alive, and you're always so goddamn busy."

"I always have time for you," he says gently.

"But I don't want you to have to push stuff aside for me. There are things more important than my needs."

"That depends on what I'm doing. Right now, I'm not doing anything. I can stay here and do whatever you want as long as you'd like me to. My time belongs to you. It is your birthday, after all."

"First order of business—you're not allowed to mention that to anyone."

Yusei raises an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Because they'll blow it out of proportion and it's not a big deal. I'm just a year closer to dying."

He laughs lightly. "In that case, just don't leave. Crow and Jack already know that today is your birthday. Jack had Mikage mark it on his calendar so he specifically wouldn't forget."

"Okay, well, Aki and the twins don't know about it. I made a pact with Evan yesterday that we wouldn't mention it to anyone and let it pass without any big goings-on."

"All right, I won't say anything."

I kick my toolbox over to him. "I don't need help moving in, but will you help me with this?"

He smiles a little and takes a wrench out of the box. "When's the last time you checked this thing out?"

"It's been a while. A month, maybe?"

"It seems like it's been longer," Yusei remarks.

"Maybe it has. Time flies nowadays."

"Not for me. It seems like everything has been slower than ever."

"How so?" I ask.

"When they said they needed me to oversee the bridge construction, they really meant it," he replies. "Whenever I'm there, I'm there all day and sometimes even all night with a billion people asking me what to do and how they should do it and with what amount of discretion. It's exhausting."

"I can imagine," I say.

"And I'm sorry I haven't been answering. Usually, I hear you, but my attention either gets diverted to where I forget I should reply or I'm already half-asleep."

"That's all right. I understand you've been busy... It's just sort of difficult not seeing your face after repeatedly seeing it for a long time beforehand."

"I get the feeling."

A sudden tapping noise breaks our conversation. I look around, searching for where it's coming from, when I suddenly spot a big black bird trying to tap its way through the window.

"Bás!" I exclaim. "You can't fly through windows!"

_I seem to have materialized a bit off of my mark_, he says. _Give me a moment. _

He disappears in a flash of green light and suddenly reappears on the coffee table, picking specks of dirt out of his wings.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

_I have stopped by to deliver news. I see your Signer companion is here. _Bás glides across the room and lands on Yusei's shoulder.

They sort of stare at each other for a while, until Yusei says, "Uh. Hello."

_I enjoy your friend,_ Bás remarks. _Morrigan also finds him to be a remarkable human._

"Good to know," I say, holding out my hand. He hops over to it and climbs onto me. "Apparently Bás thinks you're pretty great."

"So I can add celestial animal spirits to the list of things that think I can keep living," Yusei laughs. "Cool."

I laugh a little, too. "What's the word, Bás?"

_Morrigan would like for me to congratulate you and your companions on your valiant liberation of evil from the human world._

"Thanks I guess. It was less of my doing, more of the Signers'."

_Whatever you decide, you have done your job well. Morrigan is proud of you._

"Any chance I'm ever going to meet her?" I ask.

_Perhaps in the future. Now, I may not see you again for some time. In case I do not, I advise you to tread carefully into the next chain of events. They require the touch of a human rather than that of an Aeron._

I scoff. "What's that mean?"

_I will stay by my opinion that human emotion is dangerous and unnecessary, and though you may disagree with me, you will require them for your next hour of existence._

"Dammit, Bás, the cryptics again?"

_I am required to be cryptic. You are the one who twists fate, not me. If I tell you what is to happen, you may not go through with what is meant to happen. I am only here to direct you correctly and warn you when you must keep your guard up._

"But this time I'm not messing with things as an Aeron?" I say slowly.

_Correct. You may use your past knowledge if you wish, but in the end you must let your human heart direct your fate._

"Wow. Never thought I'd hear you telling me to follow my heart, Bás."

_Nor did I. Choose your path wisely. I must return to my realm now—good luck, clever girl._

I give him a sarcastic thumbs up and he disappears again into a flash of green light.

"Every time that bird comes around, you two get into some really serious conversations," Yusei says thoughtfully. "He starts squawking and you start talking really fast in some language that isn't ours and you always end up really flustered and deep in thought."

"Because he confuses me!" I whine. "He gives me these really irritating riddles and puzzles and is all 'you need to problem solve' and I'm like, 'what do I problem solve please be more specific' and he's like 'I can't give you all the answers that's like cheating.'"

Yusei laughs lightly. "So, what was it this time?"

"Well, he wanted to say congrats for us saving the world, and apparently I'm going to have to do something next that requires me to tap into my human side instead of my Aeron side."

"So no magic?"

"Yeah. Whatever it is, I'm thinking no magic. He basically told me that, during whatever is supposed to happen, I'm supposed to follow my heart. Apparently within the next hour or so."

He puts down his wrench, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. "Really?"

"Yes?" I find Yusei's reaction to be a little bit off-color. For now, I don't think I'll draw attention to it. "Apparently now that the world is saved, I've become the heroine of every young adult novel to ever exist. Following my heart sounds like something really cliché is going to happen to me."

"Maybe it is. You never know."

"Guess we'll just have to find out," I sigh. "How are my brakes?"

"As good as they'll ever be."

There's a pause in our conversation, but I want to keep talking to him. I haven't had an extended chat with him in a very long time. "I can't believe that, three months ago, I was still in Satellite."

He scoffs and slips his jacket off, laying it over the back of the sofa. "I can't believe that, three months ago, I was in prison. So many things have changed in such a short time."

"For the better, though. Right? I think every bad thing that's happened to me has led me to something good."

"It's been the same for me," he replies. "If I hadn't left Satellite, I wouldn't have gotten Stardust Dragon back. If I hadn't gotten arrested, I would've never found anything out about our marks. If I hadn't participated in the Fortune Cup, I wouldn't have met Aki, Rua, or Ruka. If I hadn't gotten hurt fighting Kiryu, we may have never made up."

"If I hadn't left Satellite, I never would have gotten Aki and my brother out of Arcadia. I could've gotten shoved somewhere with the rest of the guys and I would've never figured out where I fit in all of our stories. It's amazing what small twists in fate can do to you."

"Fate is funny," he agrees, coming to stand beside me. "It's funny how one person—if they're the right one—can change us all."

"You could be talking about a number of people," I say lightly, "but I have this sinking feeling that you're referring to me."

"Why is it sinking?" Yusei asks. "Think about all the things that would've happened if you didn't exist—think about what would be different if you didn't exist the way you do now. You've definitely changed fate, and for the better."

"How do you know things wouldn't be better if Rudger hadn't caused Zero Reverse?" I ask. "Our friends wouldn't have been homeless. You'd still have your mom and dad. Evan wouldn't be burdened with trying to protect me anymore, and maybe my mom would've survived with my dad."

"I'm positive life couldn't be better than it is now," he replies. "Our friends weren't homeless—we had Martha, and we had each other. We don't know if we would have had that. Yes, my parents are gone because of Zero Reverse, and I do wonder what would've happened if they'd survived, but the important thing is that they did exist and they made their mark—on me and on the world. If anything, I think Evan is a better person with you at his side. He protects you because he loves you, and I think just that has taught him a lot. And your parents? Like I said, they made their mark on the world and they made their mark on you. Besides, I think they'd be proud of you."

"Proud of me?" I scoff. "You know, Bás told me that Morrigan is proud of me, but I honestly don't understand what I've done that anyone could be proud of. I sort of just made sure that none of you died."

"Maybe you did do that, but you also brought us together. You really sort of have been a guiding hand for us, Silvan, so I get why the fate goddess is proud of you. The reason why I think your folks would be proud of you is because of who you've become. You've been burdened with so much, but none of it really bothered you."

"It's the same with you," I protest.

"But this isn't about me," Yusei returns. "You've done more than enough for so many people, and your parents would be proud of you. You turned out just fine, and I don't want to think about how things would've been different if everything had happened the way it was supposed to. There's a possibility that I wouldn't know you, and I don't want to think about that either."

"How did we even get to this topic?" I complain.

"We were talking about fate, and you don't think you're important when it comes down to it."

"I never said I don't think I'm important—I just said I've never done anything anyone should be proud of."

He sighs. "Well, I think you have. And you're not allowed to argue."

"You know I'm at least going to try."

"Well you're not allowed to."

"You can't control what I can and can't do, Yusei Fudo."

He glances at me and squints almost goadingly. "I can try, Silvan Levine."

"Good luck with that," I retort, developing an urge to stick my tongue out at him.

He actually laughs, probably in an attempt to smoothly change the subject. "Now that I think about it, for all that has become different, not much has really changed. We're still the same as we were a year ago, holed up in a garage and teasing each other while messing with a duel runner."

"But we are different people now," I protest, shifting back into our past topic.

"Yeah. We all are."

"I used to want more than anything to go back to being a stupid kid, like when we were obsessed with saving Satellite." I exhale, staring across to the picture he left on the coffee table. "Part of me is still living there, wanting to backtrack."

"I don't want to go back."

The tone of his voice prompts me to want to look him in the eye. When I turn and look up at him, I suddenly remember forever ago—the calm before the storm—when we met eyes over his duel runner and he insisted that he'd lay down his life in exchange for mine.

We don't talk right now—we just stay in silence and he watches me lose myself in his eyes. A lot really has changed.

"Would you still put your life down for mine?" I say finally.

"What makes you think I'd change my mind?" He replies.

"You change your mind about a lot of things."

"Not this time. This time, my mind is completely made up."

"Is it, now?"

"Yes," he says firmly, and before I can say anything else, what little space was between us in the first place disappears and he's suddenly kissing me.

I don't react at first, because I'm thinking of so long ago when I first began my adventure leading to this point in time. The one thing that ticked me off and made me escape capture in the first place was me getting pissed off at Blitz for accusing me of being Yusei's 'girl.' It was my trigger, the twist in fate that caused me to come face to face with way more truths than I wanted.

I also think of my revelation later—that it was possible that he was right. This must be what Bás wanted me to use my human side for.

So, with the help of my human side and the past knowledge that my spirit guide had recommended I use, I come to a second conclusion.

I love all my friends—I love Jack and Crow and Kiryu, and I love talking to them and laughing with them and just being with them at all. I love Aki and Rua and Ruka, and I love gardening and dueling and reading and painting and playing puzzle games with them. I love my brother and how powerfully he loves me too, but I think that the way I love Yusei is different than the way I love the rest of my friends.

I love that, when I say hello to him, his eyes light up like someone's turned a light on inside of him. I love glancing up and accidentally catching him watching me, then looking off to the side like some guilty child. I love that he has a smile that he's reserved just for me, and I love that he knows exactly when to use it. I love that I could watch him play with a clock or a smoke detector or a light switch or a duel runner for hours on end while he figures out what every individual piece is and how it's crucial to the thing's final purpose. I love that when he talks to me, he really talks because he knows I'll listen no matter what he's saying. I love that he can become a completely different person, but only for me.

For an odd reason, I'm not surprised at myself. There is, however, one thing that's confusing me. He pulls away, and I say, "Why me?"

There's a hint of a smile playing around on his lips, trying to decide if it should stay there and flourish or just die out. "Be more specific?"

"There are so many people in this world, Yusei—out of every single one of them, why have you decided on me?"

He holds out his hands for mine and I give them to him without hesitation. "You're right. There are a lot of people in the world, and I do think that we could fall in love with anyone. If you watch the way someone's lips move when they talk, the way their eyes light up when they talk about something they love, or the way it sounds when they laugh, I honestly believe that anyone could fall in love with anyone no matter who they are. To answer your question, though, in an entire world full of people that could make me fall in love with them if they just tried, you happened to be the first one to do it."

"Now you're the one that needs to be more specific."

"We were twelve," he answers lightly. "And it was raining outside—we spent the entire day inside because it wouldn't stop pouring, and you spent the whole time sitting by the front window, dragging your fingers in the frost. When I asked you what you were doing, you said you wanted to see the rain better and the window kept fogging up, so you had to keep wiping away the condensation. I said, "Rain always looks the same. You've seen it once, you've seen it a million times." Then, you said, "But it isn't the same. There's more or less or it's warmer or cooler or the drops are bigger or smaller. You just have to pay attention to notice." So I sat there with you and I did pay attention, and I learned a few things that I'd never noticed before."

I have to wonder just what he's getting at. He's not talking about rain—is he talking about me? I knew everything about him before we were 12, and I've been under the impression that it was the same for him.

"I learned that you chew on your lower lip when you're thinking. I learned that you have this dimple right here—" he points to his cheek, on the right where I know his smile always pulls higher, "—and it only shows up when you frown. I learned that your ponytail swung when you walked, and really late that night when it finally stopped raining, you ran outside and it looked like you were born going fast. I learned that, every time you smile, you smile like you have a secret and I'm not allowed to know what it is. I learned that, when you look at me, you look at me like I could save you from every bad thing in the world."

Now I understand—details. I'd told him to pay attention to detail, and he wound up picking up on all of my habits and quirks. "You fell for my details?"

"That was the first time I'd ever really looked at the world, Silvan, and it was the first time I'd ever really looked at you. It was the first time I really watched your lips when you talked, or really saw how your eyes lit up when you talked about what you love, or really listened to the sound of your laugh. I don't know if this is what your spirit guide wanted you to decide humanely on, but I've been speculating on it for a while, and I think I might be in love with you. If you don't feel the same, I hope nothing will change between us, but even if it does, what I feel isn't going to change either."

"Thanks for the justification," I say. "Now bend over a little, you're like half a foot taller than me." Obediently, he stretches down to me and I kiss him this time; his steady hands find their way into my hair.

Something else has dawned on me. It really is funny how fate effects you. One moment, you could be running away from death, and the next, you're in an empty apartment kissing your best friend. And, maybe at one point, you can think about what could've been and what you could be if your life hadn't turned out this way. It's not bad to wonder about, but I do advise against it—thinking about opportunities that pass can bring you down and make you put off realizing important things. That's something that'll definitely influence your fate.

Dwelling on my own past and forgetting my present has made me blind to a lot of important things.

Firstly, I turn eighteen today. That means it's been approximately eighteen years since Rudger Goodwin fucked up the stars of fate and put me here as the only existing half-human, half-Aeron. And I'm okay with that. God, I'm so freaking okay that I have my mark and all of my friends and I've been through everything I've been through, it's actually almost laughable.

Secondly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having emotions. Bás thinks that they're unnecessary and they sway things differently, but I think the other Aeron are missing out. Being happy or sad or angry isn't going to last forever, and neither am I. Sometimes, it really is okay to be a little bit human.

Thirdly, I'm actually sort of glad that Yusei and I have settled into this specific point in time. I think I've secretly liked the idea of being 'his girl.'

I pull away first and he leans his head against mine. We're in the same tangle we've been in multiple times in the past, with his arms around my waist and mine on his collarbone, only this time I don't think we'll retreat. "Is there a reason you didn't mention this sooner?"

His smile blooms against my forehead. "I've been looking for an opportunity to tell you for a while... When your bird said you'd have to follow your heart in the next hour or so, I had a feeling that fate wanted me to man up."

"Don't tell me you were scared," I taunt, my fingers skimming down his shoulders.

"Everyone gets scared sometimes."

"Not you." I lay my hands against his shoulder blades. "When everyone else is scared, you're usually the guy that isn't."

"Let me rephrase that—everyone has something they're afraid of."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of _me_," I scoff.

"Not a chance," Yusei laughs. "But haven't you ever heard of rejection?"

"I've heard of it, I've just never expected it to be something you'd fear."

"No matter how many supernatural dragon spirits decide to imprint on me, I'm still human, and I'm still afraid of rejection," he tells me. "I'm afraid of a lot of things, like any other regular person."

"Such as?"

"Death, spiders, losing people I'm close to." He pauses. "Losing you."

"You're not really afraid of rejection," I say, "are you?"

His eyes watch mine. "I was mostly afraid of telling you and witnessing our friendship change." _Or even cease to exist._

_I've been friends with you for too long to break it off just like that. I'm not so cruel as to just ruin us because I'd be afraid it'd be awkward. _"You should know me better than that."

Yusei sighs. "You're right—I should."

"Besides," I laugh, "you couldn't get rid of me if you tried. You're sorta stuck with me."

He smiles again—God, I've missed seeing him smile. "I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing."

"You'll get sick of me someday."

"I doubt that." I watch his eyes. "So, half-Aeron, since it looks like we're done with the past, I feel compelled to mention that it's been a happy ending so far—where do you suppose we'll go from here?"

"Well, I do know that I have to go back to Aki's house and get Evan so we can finish moving in, but I guess in a wider sense I'll have to get back to you on it," I say. "I can't see the future yet, and not even I know what fate has in store for us next."

"That's all right. I like right now."

For once, the present has been good to me long enough to make me want to stay in it. With everything that's happened to us, I'm surprised the sun hasn't fallen out of the sky and killed everyone. "I like right now, too."

I rest my head against his chest and we sort of just stay there in a loose embrace. This is the peace I've wanted since he left six months ago, and though I haven't gotten it exactly how I thought I would, it's somehow just right.

-ACT I: A BILLION REASONS TO GO ON LIVING - _END_.


End file.
